Virus
by superdupersk8r61
Summary: Virus. That's what he was. Something that infected everything he touched. Something to be avoided at all cost. But when happens when events thrust them together? What happens when they must be quarantined together for three weeks? McStizzie! R and R!
1. Bad Day

**Summary:**Virus. n. From the Latin word _virūs_, meaning "poison" or "venom". That's what he was to her. Something that infected everything he touched. Something to be avoided at all costs. But when circumstances thrust them together, will she begin to see him in a different light?

**A/N:** This is my first Grey's Anatomy fanfic. I do not, nor do I pretend to have an M.D. after my name, so my knowledge of medicine is limited, so I took some poetic license. Also, this story is not set in the current storyline of the show. It was just an idea tha got stuck in my head so I decided to get it out. Please Read and Review!

**Disclaimer:** I'm sure everyone's heard this a million times before, but I do not own Grey's Anatomy, or anything related to it.

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**Chapter 1: Bad Day**

Dr. Isobel Stevens drummed her fingers on the counter at the nurses' station in annoyance. While her fellow interns were scattered around the hospital, actually saving lives, she was stuck doing paperwork. It had been weeks since Izzie was put on probation since returning to Seattle Grace after Denny's death, but she was still forbidden from interacting with patients in any way. She was in the process of filling out a patient's discharge form when she heard footsteps coming from down the hall. Looking up in curiosity, Izzie saw Dr. Miranda Bailey approaching.

Izzie opened her mouth to speak to Dr. Bailey, but before she could get a word out, the resident held up her hand, silencing the intern. "Dr. Stevens, don't even _think _about asking to get in on case."

Izzie once again started to open her mouth, wanting to protest, but Bailey silenced her again, only this time, all it took was a hard glare. Izzie immediately closed her mouth, giving Bailey a desperate look.

"The more you ask, Dr. Stevens, the more paperwork you're gonna do. It's your choice." Knowing that she meant business, Izzie wisely decided not to say anything, and went back to the paperwork in front of her.

"That's what I thought," Bailey said, as she grabbed a chart and continued on her way.

As soon as Izzie sensed enough time had gone by for Bailey to have gotten out of earshot, she let out a loud, exacerbated sigh.

"Bad day?" asked a voice from above Izzie's head. She looked up from behind the desk and immediately felt chills go down her spine. Standing there, with a smug grin that she wanted to knock right off his face, was the one person in the hospital Izzie couldn't stand, and she knew she wasn't alone in her sentiments. Standing in front of her was the man who, while only being at Seattle Grace a week or so, has managed to disrupt their entire little world. This man was no other than Dr. Mark Sloan, world-renowned plastic surgeon and asshole extraordinaire. He seemed to take pleasure in torturing people, a strange fetish for a doctor. He created ever more tension in the already dramatic Meredith-Derek-Addison love triangle. Lately, his latest thrill was turning Dr. Alex Karev into his own personal man-servant, while never letting him scrub-in on any of his surgeries. Yes, the man was all-around just plain evil, but Izzie really detested him because of what he did to her best friend, Dr. George O'Malley. George and Dr. Callie Torres were dating, but then Mark swept in and slept with Callie when he knew full well that she was with George. What's worse is that he then proceeded to tell George about it, claiming, "he didn't know." George was devastated. Dr. Sloan had desperately hurt her best friend, and to Izzie, that was unforgivable.

"Is there something you need, Dr. Sloan?" Izzie asked, not even bothering to try and not roll her eyes.

"Why do you automatically assume I want something? Can't a guy just say 'Hi' to a beautiful girl?" Sloan replied, trying to look innocent.

"No," Izzie said bluntly.

"No?!" Mark asked, raising his eyebrow and his smirk widening.

"No," Izzie reiterated. "Guys like you always want something," she said, leaning back in her chair, and folding her arms across her chest.

Mark held his hands up in surrender. "Alright. You win. I want Mrs. Rosenberg's chart."

"So ask a nurse," Izzie snapped, contempt radiating in her voice.

Mark stared at her for a minute. "What do think I'm doing?".

Izzie's jaw dropped to floor. "Oh, you did _not_ just call me a nurse!" she exclaimed as she jumped up from her seat, totally offended, and mad her way around the counter so she was face to face with him.

"You're sitting at the nurses' station," Mark said coolly.

"And?!" Izzie asked, her voice beginning to raise slightly.

He leaned over the counter and grabbed to papers Izzie was filling out. "These are discharge summaries," he said, holding them in the air to show her as if she didn't know. "Only nurses fill out discharge summaries. Doctors are too good for that," he stated, his eyes scrunching up at her.

"Look, I am a doctor, okay?!" Izzie barked, shoving her I.D. tag in his face. "The only reason I'm doing this stuff is because I'm on probation and not allowed to see patients."

Mark took the tag from her hand, and studied it. "What did you do?" he asked, not looking up from the tag.

"I really don't think that's any your business, Dr. Sloan," she said with a sweet sarcastic tone of voice.

"Isobel Stevens," he said, finally looking up and flashing his infamous "McSteamy" grin. "I'll remember that," he said, his voice oozing with confidence as he held out her I.D.

Izzie glared at him, snatched her tag out of his hand, and stomped back behind the desk without another word to Mark.

"I'll see you around, _Dr_. Stevens," he said, his sarcasm matching Izzie's.

She rolled her eyes at him while he grabbed the chart he needed, and left.

"God, I _hate_ that guy!" Izzie exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Dr. Sloan?" Nikki, a new nurse, asked coming up from behind Izzie. "How could anyone hate him?" she asked. "He's so sexy," she stated, practically drooling.

"That guy is _not_ sexy. Not even close. In fact, he is the complete opposite of sexy. That guy is like so," Izzie paused looking for the right word. "...not sexy!" Izzie concluded, her voice rising with every statement.

Nikki's eyes grew wide listening to Izzie's outburst. "Oh, wow. I didn't mean to upset you I just thought-"

"That guy is like a virus!" Izzie exclaimed, continuing her rant. "Yeah, that's it! A virus! He waltzes in here, uninvited, and like, literally, just sucks the life out of everything! And whoever he comes near is just contaminated!" she said, all in one breath.

When she was finished, she dropped back in the chair and let out a breath. "Too bad there isn't a vaccine for people like him," she said more to herself than to Nikki.

Just then, Izzie's pager went off. All thoughts of Mark Sloan flew out of her head, thinking Bailey was finally going to give her a chance to redeem herself.


	2. The Worst Day Ever

_Just then, Izzie's pager went off. All thoughts of Mark Sloan flew out of her head, thinking Bailey was finally going to give her a chance to redeem herself._

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**Chapter 2: The Worst Day Ever**

She ran down to the E.R. and found Meredith, Cristina, George, Alex, and pretty much everyone part of the surgical service, all preparing for an incoming trauma.

"What do we got?" Izzie asked, coming up behind them.

Meredith turned around, a look of shock registering on her face when she saw Izzie standing there.

"Izzie-" she began before she was interrupted by Bailey.

"Stevens, what the hell are you doing down here?" she asked, clearly very angry.

Izzie felt her stomach drop. "I, uh...I was paged?" she said, hesitantly.

Bailey sighed. "The nurses must have paged everyone because we're gonna need all the hands we can get. There was a huge, multi-car pileup on the interstate. You need to get out of the way so you don't interfere."

"Well, since you need everyone and since I'm already here-" Izzie began hopefully.

"Save it, Stevens," Bailey said, shaking her head. "This is would be too much for you to handle."

"But-" Izzie started, desperately.

"The only 'but' I want to be hearing about, Stevens, is _yours_ heading back upstairs," she yelled.

Defeated, Izzie turned around and headed back upstairs where she found Mark lounging at the nurses' station.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Isobel Stevens," he said smugly. "See? Told you I'd remember."

"Why aren't you downstairs with everyone else?" Izzie asked, not in the mood for McSteamy at the moment.

"Oh, is that where everybody is?" he said, throwing his feet up on the desk while sipping his cappuccino. "I knew I didn't hear any whiny interns, arrogant residents, or useless nurses around anywhere," he said, flashing his damn grin again.

Izzie decided to ignore his degrading comment and gestured to the abandoned halls all around them. "And you didn't find that _odd_?!" she asked, frustrated with everything.

Mark just shrugged and continued sipping his coffee.

Izzie rolled her eyes, a reaction she was getting used to associating with Mark. "There's been a major accident on the freeway. Bailey says they need all the help they can get."

Mark kept right on chugging that cappuccino.

"Don't you think maybe you should go help?" Izzie said slowly, as if talking to a child.

He finally put down his drink and grinned. "Don't _you_ think I should be asking you that same question?"

It took all the strength she had to not strangle him, she was so annoyed. "Probation!" was all she could muster. She was trying really, really hard not to lose it.

"Ahh, that's right," Mark said, getting up from the chair to go stand next to Izzie. "You know, you never told me what you did."

He looked at her expectantly, but she didn't say word. "Okay, let me guess, let me guess," he said, moving even closer to her. "You fell asleep, consequently ignored a patient, they got pissed and sued?"

Izzie just stared straight ahead, jaw clenching in anger, while Mark leaned kept leaning in closer. She didn't say a word. "No, that can't be it. You wouldn't get probation for that. Let me see... Oh, I know!" he said, snapping his fingers in an epiphany. "You're an addict who's been swiping drugs from the pharmacy!"

Izzie whipped her head toward him and shot him a death glare, causing Mark to step back, almost startled. "Okay, guess not."

She shot him another "look" and then moved her head back so she was facing forward again.

This time, Mark leaned in so close, Izzie could feel his warm breath on her neck. He whispered in her ear, "I bet you went all Kevorkian on a patient's ass."

Izzie immediately reacted, whirling around, her hand coming in direct contact with his face. "How _dare_ you?" she hissed.

"Looks like I touched a nerve there," Mark replied, rubbing his cheek but still grinning.

Izzie grabbed him by his white jacket, and pulled him close. "What in the hell do you think gives you the right to speak to me like that?" she asked, sternly yet quietly, her teeth gritted.

"You do realize that, technically, I am your boss, right?" he asked her, amused.

"Oh, please," she said, now shoving him away. "If you told the chief I slapped you, he would probably give me raise."

Mark opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted by a very frantic man coming out of one of the rooms.

"Oh thank God. Dr. Sloan, I need you to come quick. My wife...she...she...," the man cried out, breathlessly.

"What happened, Mr. Rosenberg?" Mark asked, brushing past Izzie, moving toward the man.

"I don't know," he replied, near hysterical. "One minute she was fine, just had a little flu, like you said, and the next she began vomiting blood and her eyes starting turning red and now I think she's unconscious."

A look of extreme concern flashed on Mark's face. "Did you say her eyes?"

"Yes, her eyes," Mr. Rosenberg said, his eyes growing even more wide when he saw the look of panic on the doctor's face. "Dr. Sloan? What's happening? What's going on?"

Mark ignored then man, and instead barked at Izzie. "Stevens. Come with me. Now!"

"But, Dr. Sloan, I can't. I mean, I'm not allowed. Dr. Bailey said-"

Mark interrupted her. "Dr. Stevens, I am Dr. Bailey's superior. I can make an exception. Especially because if the feeling I'm having is right, I'm not going to be able to handle this alone," Mark said, his voice straining, trying to to sound too concerned in front of the worried husband.

"Maybe it would be better if you paged someone or-" once again she was cut off.

"I don't have time to wait for anyone right now. And besides, I'm sure it's probably so hectic down there, they're not going to be worrying about pages from me," Mark told her, his eyes telling Izzie that the potential situation in front of them was very serious.

Without another word, Izzie started toward Mark and the two of them followed Mr. Rosenberg into his wife's room.

"Mrs. Rosenberg? Mrs. Rosenberg, can you hear me?" Mark asked, opening the unconscious woman's eyes and checking them.

After getting no response, Mark started feeling around her stomach. "Abdomen's rigid and enlarged," he said, turning to Izzie.

"She's bleeding internally?" Izzie asked.

Mark turned down the bed covers. "I think it may be a little more complicated than that," he said, staring at Mrs. Rosenberg's legs. "Dr. Stevens, come look at this."

"Will somebody _please_ tell me what's going on?!" Mr. Rosenberg asked frantically.

Izzie moved to the patient's bedside. "Purpura," she said, noticing the red discolorations all over Mrs. Rosenberg's legs.

Mark moved her hospital gown out of the way to check her stomach. "They're everywhere," Izzie stated, seeing the trend continue on Mrs. Rosenberg's stomach, arms, and back as Mark continued checking her over.

"It could still just be internal bleeding," Izzie said.

The look in Mark's eyes told her there was more to it than that. "Mrs. Rosenberg just recently came back from a trip to Africa," he told Izzie quietly.

"Okay, so what does that mean?" she asked.

"She works with monkeys," he told her, his voice struggling to remain calm.

Izzie still wasn't sure what was going on. "Dr. Sloan, I don't know if I-"

"Dr. Stevens, it is entirely possible that Mrs. Rosenberg has come in contact with the Ebola virus."


	3. How to Save a Life

_"Dr. Stevens, it is entirely possible that Mrs. Rosenberg has come in contact with the Ebola virus."_

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**Chapter 3: How to Save a Life**

Izzie's eyes widened in shock. Mr. Rosenberg sunk to a chair. "Ebola? That isn't good is it?" he asked, stunned.

"No, Mr. Rosenberg, I'm afraid that it isn't," Mark said. "Ebola presents with simple flu symptoms in the early stages, which makes it very difficult to diagnose, and also it is extremely rare. Your wife is now showing the signs of hemorrhagic fever, a late stage of the virus. We're going to have to-"

Mark was interrupted by loud beeping. "Dr. Sloan, she's crashing."

"Damn it! We've got to move fast. Push fibrinogen. See if we can stop some of the bleeding," he yelled to Izzie.

Izzie administered the drug, but it produced no change.

"Oh, my God! Please help her. You have to do something!" Mr Rosenberg hysterically cried from the corner of the room.

"Get a crash cart!" Mark told Izzie while he began CPR.

Izzie flew out of the room and returned within seconds. "Charge the paddles!" Mark yelled.

Izzie obeyed and Mark shocked Mrs. Rosenberg. It didn't help.

"Again!" he called, but for a second time, there was no change. Mark and Izzie continued trying to resuscitate her.

"Dr. Sloan, she's asystole," Izzie told him, the heart monitor flat-lining.

"Shit!" Mark yelled agitated, slamming the paddles down in frustration.

"What? That's it?" Mr. Rosenberg asked. "No, you have to do something else. Shock her again," he pleaded to Mark.

"Mr. Rosenberg, her heart is no longer producing cardiac electrical activity. It won't respond to defibrillations if there is no rhythm," Mark said, sympathetically. "The virus is just too far advanced to have had anything work."

"Dr. Sloan, couldn't we-" Izzie began. She had retrieved the discarded paddles and was still standing next to Mrs. Rosenberg, paddles raised in the air.

"No. It's over," he replied coldly.

"But-" she tried, once again, to protest.

"Time of death: 19:12," Mark said, not even looking at Izzie.

"Wait, Don't say that yet," Mr Rosenberg said, painfully full of hope. "She thinks there's something you can do. She sounds like she knows."

"Mr. Rosenberg, Dr. Stevens is an intern. She doesn't know what she's talking about," Mark said harshly, shooting a glare at Izzie.

Izzie fumed when she heard Mark's words. However she chose not to retort, trying to remain professional in front of a very distraught husband.

"I...I, uh...I can't be in here right now," Mr Rosenberg told the two doctors, tears now running down his face.

"Mr. Rosenberg-" Mark began, but it was no use.

Mr. Rosenberg hurriedly brushed past them and ran out the door, muttering, "I should have never let her go to Africa."

On his way out the door, he ran into Dr. Bailey. He kept on moving, while she looked around the room angrily. "What in the hell is going on around here?" she asked sternly from the doorway, eyeing Izzie still holding the defibrillator paddles.

"Dr. Sloan needed help with his Ebola patient," Izzie said hastily, trying to explain.

Dr. Bailey's eyebrows shot up and she focused her attention onto the attending. "Ebola? I thought the woman was here for rhinoplasty."

"She was. We were supposed to do it today. But for the past few days she had been presenting with flu-like symptoms so we moved it back. Well, turns out it wasn't flu. Mrs. Rosenberg had been in Africa working with monkeys. She contracted the Ebola virus," Mark told her.

Dr. Bailey immediately shut the door to the room, with her standing on the outside, and the other two doctors trapped inside.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mark asked roughly.

"Well if this patient has what you say she has, it is possible that you two have been infected. You'll have to stay quarantined in here so we don't jeopardize any one else," Dr. Bailey said then turned around and walked away.

Izzie turned to Mark, eyeing him warily. He, however, looked amused.

"Looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together," he said, giving her another "McSteamy" grin.


	4. Crash into Me

**A/N: **Thanks to those who reviewed. I appreciate the feedback and it helps keep me motivated!

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_"Looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together," he said, giving her another "McSteamy" grin._

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**Chapter 4: Crash into Me**

Izzie watched as two men in contamination suits came in and took away Mrs. Rosenberg while another stuck signs on the doors and windows on the room, alerting everyone who walked by of the situation.

"Um, excuse me?" Izzie said, trying to get the attention of one of the men in the giant white suits. "How long do you think we'll be stuck in here for?" she asked, her voice shaking with a hint of desperation.

She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a snicker of amusement come from one of the men. However, neither replied and they just wheeled away the body, immediately shutting the door behind them.

"The incubation period for the virus can be anywhere from 2 to 21 days," Mark told her, lounging comfortably in the armchair Mr. Rosenberg had been occupying what it seemed like only moments before.

"We could be in here for 3 _weeks_?!" Izzie asked, stunned.

"Yeah. It's possible," he said, amazingly calm considering what had gone down in the past half hour or so." But it's also possible the tests they're going to run on Mrs. Rosenberg will determine that it wasn't actually Ebola and we'll be out of here in 3 hours."

"So you're saying our options are either 3 hours or 3 weeks," Izzie reiterated.

"Basically," Mark said, shrugging.

"How could you possibly so calm about this?" she asked, still in shock.

"It's not like we can do anything about it," Mark stated reasonably. "Freaking out is not going to change the situation."

Mark's calm demeanor was starting to irritate Izzie. "You know, if you had actually listened to the rules for once in your life, I wouldn't _be_ in this situation right now."

He let out a snort of laughter. "You're actually blaming this on me?" he asked, eyebrow raising and grin widening.

"Yeah," she stated like it should have been obvious.

Mark looked at her for a moment, his eyes gleaming. "Would you care to explain to me how this is my fault?"

Izzie flopped down on the bed with a groan of frustration. "Do you realize how aggravating you are?" she asked him, almost laughing."How do you not get that this is your fault?"

He just looked at her with the same amused look on his face. Izzie rolled her eyes. "You want to know how this is your fault?" she asked him.

Mark simply nodded. "I told you that I couldn't interact with patients. I told you to have someone else paged. Youknew I wasn't supposed to go in that room. You shouldn't have let me do that." Izzie told him.

"Oh my, God. You are so selfish," he told her, shaking his head.

Izzie actually laughed out loud. "Oh, I'm the selfish one?" she asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

"You realize that you just told me that I should have gotten someone else to come look at Mrs. Rosenberg with me. And of course, that would mean someone else would be quarantined and you would get to home in a few hours," he said, looking at her with a smug look of self-satisfaction on his face.

Izzie's jaw dropped slightly. She quickly recovered and looked at Mark, narrowing her eyes. "You know that's not what I meant," she told him, although not very convincingly.

"Wasn't it?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

She folded her arms across her chest. "Well, maybe a little," she admitted grudgingly. "But there are so many other things I'd rather be doing than being stuck here with you."

"Seriously?" Mark asked, grinning.

"Yeah, well, uh...let's see," Izzie began sarcastically. "Things I'd rather do other than sitting here with you: listen to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" one thousand times in a row, spend a week with the kids from _Laguna Beach,_ slather honey all over myself and spending the night in a bear colony, vote for George Bush again, watch infomercials for the rest of my life, eat nails, and, oh yea...gouge my own eyes out," Izzie finished, smiling sweetly and sarcastically.

Mark shook his head like he was coming out of a trance. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you finished? I was too busy picturing the whole honey thing, so I kind of zoned out for the rest."

Izzie opened her mouth to retort, but before she could say anything, there was a tapping on the glass window of the door. Izzie whirled around to find Meredith waving her over. Izzie jumped up from the bed and rushed over to her friend.

"Izzie, what happened?" Meredith asked from behind the door. "Why doe these signs say 'Quarantine'? And is that McSteamy?" Meredith asked, trying to look around Izzie to get a glance of the attending.

"Meredith," Izzie said, trying to regain her friend's attention. "Meredith!" she said, snapping her fingers near the glass, close to Meredith's face.

Meredith snapped back to Izzie. "Huh, what?"

"Focus," Izzie told her, making sure Meredith was looking in her eyes.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I guess I got a little distracted for a minute," she said apologetically.

"No kidding," Izzie replied, rolling her eyes.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Mark called from the other side of the room.

Izzie turned around to give him another "look" and turned back to Meredith.

"We have to stay in here because we worked on a patient who might have had the Ebola virus and now we could possibly be infected.

Meredith eyes grew wide. "WHAT!?" she exclaimed, shocked.

"Tell me about it," she said, bitterly. "Symptoms can take up to 3 weeks to appear, which means we can't be let out until they're sure we don't have it."

"You might be in here for 3 weeks?" Meredith asked.

"Yeah, maybe. Unless the autopsy comes back and they find out Mrs. Rosenberg didn't actually have Ebola, and they'll let us go," Izzie said with a forced smile.

"Oh, I'm sure that's what's going to happen. You'll be out of here in no time," Meredith said, trying to sound optimistic.

Just then, Bailey came up from behind Meredith, holding papers in her hands.

"Are those the autopsy results?" Izzie asked eagerly.

Hearing her words, Mark got up from the chair and joined the other three by the door.

"Miranda?" Mark asked, prompting the doctor to deliver the news.

When Bailey didn't say anything right away, Izzie got nervous. "Dr. Bailey, you have that look," she said, her voice soft and shaky.

"What are you talking about, Stevens?" she asked.

"That look all doctors get when they're about to deliver bad news," she said, studying the elder doctor's face.

Bailey was taken aback. She opened her mouth to speak, but it seemed as if nothing would come out.

"Okay, uh, you see...I'm not really sure how to say this..." she began.

"Well you pretty much just said it all, didn't you?" Mark stated steadily.

"Dr. Sloan, Dr. Stevens," Bailey said slowly, looking intently at both her colleagues. "I'm afraid it's official. Mrs. Rosenberg died of complications following the contraction of the Ebola virus. To ensure you don't have, you'll have to stay in quarantine for a maximum of 21 days."


	5. Figured You Out

**A/N:** 2nd update today! Hope you guys enjoy. PS: Continued thanks to the reviewers. I realize this may be starting off slow, but it will pick up. I hope you stick with it!

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_"Dr. Sloan, Dr. Stevens," Bailey said slowly, looking intently at both her colleagues. "I'm afraid it's official. Mrs. Rosenberg died of complications following the contraction of the Ebola virus. To ensure you don't have it, you'll have to stay in quarantine for a maximum of 21 days."_

**_

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**Chapter 5: Figured You Out**

"21 days? What are we going to do locked in here for 21 days?" Izzie proclaimed out loud after Dr. Bailey and Meredith had both left, leaving her and Dr. Sloan alone in their containment.

"I'm sure I could come up with a few suggestions," Mark replied suggestively, who had resumed his position in the armchair.

"Could you please be serious for, like, once in your life?" Izzie asked sharply, pacing back and forth across the room's hard linoleum floors.

"Could you just stop pacing and relax? You're going to stress me out," he said, not looking at Izzie, but rather calmly picking at his fingernails.

She did indeed stop pacing, and plopped down on the bed, directly in front of Mark. "Relax? Seriously? We could both potentially have the Ebola virus, which I might point out, is _fatal_, and you're telling me to relax?" Izzie let out a small laugh at the irony of the situation. "You are a real piece of work."

"Listen to me. It really isn't that big of a deal," he said, leaning forward in the chair so that his blue eyes bore directly into her brown ones. "Say one, or even both, of us actually did catch the virus. We'll start showing flu-like symptoms, and then they can treat us. Ebola is only fatal if it isn't caught in time. The second either of us start showing signs, they'll administer the medication. We'll be fine," he said, moving his hand onto Izzie's arm for consolation.

Izzie's eyes grew wide and she yanked her arm out from under his hand as through his very touch had scalded her skin. "Don't touch me," she said, harshly.

"Well, forgive me for trying to be comforting. My mistake," Mark said, rolling his eyes and leaning back in the chair.

Izzie didn't reply. She just stared straight ahead, stoic-faced, ignoring him completely. Mark sighed and shrugged off his lab coat. He didn't stop there, however, and he began to pull his navy blue scrub top over his head.

"What do you think you're doing?" Izzie asked him, unable to stop the blush from rising in her cheeks.

"We're going to be here a while. May as well get comfortable," came the answer through the thin piece of material as Mark had been stopped by Izzie's question half-way through the process of de-shirting.

"Oh. Right," Izzie said embarrassed.

Mark finished pulling the shirt off, and Izzie was relieved to see that there was a t-shirt underneath. Although, she couldn't help but notice that it was quite form-fitting. As much as it killed her to admit, the man was quite attractive.

Mark caught her staring at him.. "Like what you see?" he asked with a self-assured grin.

"Okay,you know what?" Izzie asked, swinging her legs up onto the bed, and leaning against the headboard, deciding that should also try to get comfortable. "If you expect me to be happy about being forced to spend time with you, you can forget about it. Other women in this place may fawn all over your 'McSteamy' crap, but I'm not buying any of it,"

"You don't like me very much, do you?" Mark asked her, smirking.

Izzie let out a short, loud laugh when she heard that statement. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Why not?" he asked her, his grin widening.

"Because you're you," she said blatantly.

"Oh, could you be anymore vague?" he asked sarcastically.

"Just...just because!" Izzie replied, searching for the right word, but coming up empty-handed.

Mark held up his hands in mock surprise. "Congratulations! You did it. You were more vague."

Izzie narrowed her eyes at him. "Well...I just don't like you," she said stubbornly.

"Well, thanks for clearing that up for me," he said, nodding.

She blew her bangs out of her face in frustration. "You really want to know why I don't like you?" she asked, exasperated.

"Yes. But my theory is that you're secretly harboring a hidden desire for me," Mark stated, eyes twinkling and smirk growing.

"See!" Izzie exclaimed, sitting straight up, and pointing at him. "It's that! Right there!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, smile fading and eyebrows crinkling, now genuinely confused.

"This!" Izzie reiterated. "This whole captivating 'McSteamy' thing," she said, pointing at him, up and down. "The eyes, the smile...it's such an act."

"Is that so?" Mark asked her, crossing his muscular arms, waiting for her answer.

"Yeah, all that charisma and charm that all the women here fall for? It's an act. They don't see the real you," she told him, getting up from the bed, walking over to the door, and staring at the window, watching the bustle outside.

"And you do?" he asked, his voice showing his doubt.

"Yeah," she said, turning from the door to face Mark. "I can see you for the true asshole you are."

Mark laughed, but quickly stifled it when he saw the look Izzie was shooting him. "Oh, I'm sorry. You were serious."

He was beginning to infuriate her. "You are _un_believable!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration, and turning back to the door.

"Oh, really?" Mark said, his voice raising slightly. He rose from the chair, and joined Izzie by the door. "Well, contrary to _your_ belief, I don't pretend to be someone I'm not," he said sharply, to her ear, for she was refusing to look at him.

He finally grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around so she was facing him. "_You_, on the other hand, might want to look in the mirror when you're making those accusations toward me."

Izzie jerked out from under his hands and took a step backward. "What the hell do you know?" she asked angrily. "You don't know anything about me."

"Oh please," Mark said with a short laugh. settling onto the bed. "I had all of you interns figured out the second I walked into this place.

Izzie sat down next to him. "Seriously? You really think so?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"I know so," he said, eyeing her confidently. "You all were so easy to read, it was almost painful."

"Well, this I'd love to hear," she said, settling back on to the bed. "Go ahead. Enlighten me."

"I will," Mark told her. It was evident that he did not doubt himself at all. "That Asian chick? There's nothing more important to her than her job, and she will do anything to get to the top, even if that means stepping all over the rest of you. And the little, shy one? He's desperate for approval from everyone. He'll never make it as a surgeon. Then there's the one that's been following me around. Dr. Something-or-other. He'll make a good surgeon. He's brutally honest, except, of course, when he's around you, because he's completely infatuated with you."

Izzie's jaw dropped with Mark's latest statement. "Oh yeah, that's right. Boy's in love with you," he continued. "Let me see, who am I forgetting? The mousey girl who's got Derek's panties all up in a bunch. She's whiney, needy, and believes the entire world revolves around her. Did I get that right?"

Mark was dead-on with all his evaluations, but that was not something that Izzie would give him the satisfaction of knowing. "Am I supposed to be impressed?" she asked him coolly. "Anyone who's spent 3 seconds with my friends would be able to figure that out. But just how would you describe me? The feisty, free-thinker? Because that would be jus another typical cliche-"

He cut her off. "Your the one who's had her heart broken, but is covering it up with a tough facade," he said softly, looking at the ground.

"How did you know that?" she asked breathlessly, fighting back sudden tears.

Mark looked up into her eyes, and for the first time, Izzie saw complete sincerity. "Because that's who I am too."


	6. Feeling a Moment

**A/N:** Again I want to thank the reviewers. They help me out so much. Now, I'm not too sure about this chapter, so I'd love it if I could get your feedback. Thanks guys! On with the story...Oh, and if the first paragraph in this chapter is italisized (besides the part from the previous chapter) I apologize. It's not supposed to be like that and on my computer sometimes it shows up italisized, other times it shows up normal, so I'm really not sure what's going on. Anyway, enough rambling..._

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He cut her off. "Your the one who's had her heart broken, but is covering it up with a tough facade," he said softly, looking at the ground. _

_"How did you know that?" she asked breathlessly, fighting back sudden tears._

_Mark looked up into her eyes, and for the first time, Izzie saw complete sincerity. "Because that's who I am too."_

_

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_

**Chapter 6: Feeling a Moment**

To say Izzie was shocked by Mark's revelation would be an understatement. She studied him carefully, her eyes searching deep into his. He looked back at her with such intensity. And for once, she didn't see him as this barbaric, heartless creature. Looking into his eyes, she saw a scarred, emotional human being. That concept was a difficult one to grasp for Izzie, seeing as she had felt nothing for contempt for this man since he walked into Seattle Grace. Overcome with a onset of unfamiliar feelings for Mark, Izzie wasn't able to react. She continue staring at him. The longer she looked at him, and he, back at her, she more she felt her pulse begin to quicken and her breath start to get heavier. He looked so hurt that she had a strange urge to hug him, comfort him in any way. Just as she was about to move toward him, she was thrown back into reality and she realized just exactly who was sitting beside her. This was Mark Sloan, for goodness sake. Broken heart? The thought of Mark ever caring about another person was laughable. But then again, he really did look genuine...

Mark and Izzie's gazes were finally broken with a sudden rapping on the door. Izzie immediately jumped up from her position on the bed, while Mark quietly hung his head for a moment of contemplative silence, sighed, and then got up and joined Izzie at the door.

Alex Karev was standing there, holding a bag up to the window so the two could see. A delicious aroma was radiating from it.

"Oh please tell me that's what I think it is," Izzie said, practically drooling, all previous emotions experienced now replaced by hunger.

Karev just grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, waving the bag back and forth.

"What is it?" Mark asked Izzie.

Izzie turned to him excitedly. "Alex brought us Chinese from Jade Lee. Seriously, their food is from heaven,"

Mark laughed at the irony of the young intern so giddy over food when only moments before they were having an intense moment. Or so he thought. He could be wrong, but he was Mark Sloan, and Mark Sloan was never wrong about these kind of things.

"Wait a second," Alex said, interrupting Mark's thoughts. "Who said it was for you? I could just be torturing you," he said with a wicked smirk.

Izzie thrust her leg out and threw both hands on her hips, the classic "angry female" pose. "Alex Karev, I swear to God, if that's for you-" she began, severely.

Alex silenced her with laughter. "Jeeze, calm down, would you? Of course it's for you," he said, shaking his head. "I'm not that much of an ass, am I?" he asked.

Izzie just raised one of her perfectly arched eyebrows. "You know what? Don't answer that," he said quickly. "Anyway, I heard about what happened, and I thought that maybe, you guys would be hungry, considering you might be in there a while." he said, beginning to shift his feet, while a slight blush rose on his face and he looked at Izzie.

"There's only one problem here, Romeo," Mark said, disinterested in Alex's feeble attempt to show Izzie how he really feels. "You're out _there_. We're in _here_," he said slowly and deliberately. motioning to both himself and Izzie.

The grin quickly vanished from Alex's face. He pursed his lips in thought for a moment before they once again broke into a smile. "Wait right there," he said pointing to the other two doctors. "I'll be right back."

"Where the hell do you think we're gonna go?" Mark sarcastically called after him, but to no avail. Alex had already taken off jogging down the hallway, sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floors as he went.

He turned to Izzie a knowing-smirk on his face. "What?' she asked innocently.

Mark shrugged and said, "Told you so," as he turned around and sat back down on the bed.

"What are you? Like, 5?" she asked, smiling at his immaturity.

He realized it was then when he saw his first real smile from Izzie Stevens. He couldn't help but think it was such a gorgeous smile. Her entire face lit up, and her brown eyes seemed to sparkle. She also had some of the cutest dimples Mark had ever seen.

"6," he retorted, sticking out his tongue.

She laughed sincerely. "How very grown-up of you,"she said, moving away from the door and rejoining him on the bed.

"I try," he said grinning, slightly nudging her in the side with his elbow.

This time, Izzie didn't recoil with his touch. Quite the opposite, in fact. She giggled like a nervous schoolgirl and shyly tucked a stray piece of blonde hair that back fallen out, back behind her ear.

"Shut up," she said, blushing, and playfully shoving him.

Izzie felt as though she had entered some alternate universe. McSteamy was flirting with her, and she was flirting right back. Had anyone asked her a few hours ago, if she would ever think any of this would be possible, she would have laughed in his face and called him insane. And yet, here she was. And all it took was only one moment of honesty from the self-proclaimed "playboy".

"You know, you're cute when you're not angry with me," he told her, his smile real. "Which isn't often, so I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, huh?"

"You know, you're funny when you're not being an asshole," she said, smoothly mocking him. "Which isn't often, so I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, huh?"

Mark was a little surprised by the tenacity of the blonde. Izzie was definitely vivacious, there was no denying that. He liked that in a woman.

He looked intently at her, almost scrutinizing her even. She flushed even brighter under his gaze. "What?" she asked, embarrassed. "What are you looking at?"

He slowly and coolly shook his head, staying unaffected. "Nothing," he said, continuing to look at her.

Izzie felt herself begin to melt. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't used to being weak, feeling so vulnerable. She'd always been the strong one. She'd never let her emotions get the best of her.Then, Denny came along and changed everything. But after his death, she vowed to never let herself feel defenseless again. She wasn't sure her heart could take it. But now, once again, she was allowing a man to get to her. She was falling under the spell that was Dr. Mark "McSteamy" Sloan. What's worse is that she started falling in less than 5 minutes. She hated herself for it, but at the same time, the excitement of experiencing those kinds of feelings again was something she was starting to welcome.

"Izzie, Dr. Sloan," came a voice from outside the door. Looking up, the doctors saw Alex standing there.

Izzie didn't even try to contain her laughter. Alex look ridiculous. He had put on one of the contamination suits, and slightly resembled giant marshmallow. "Alex, what the hell are you doing? And where did you get that?" she asked, still laughing.

"Don't worry about that," Alex told her in a tone of voice that, did, in fact, trouble her.

"Dude, you look like a freak," Mark told him, grimacing.

"Sure, but I'm a freak bearing Chinese food," he said brightly.

Mark and Izzie looked at each other for about a split second. "Come in!" they called simultaneously, turning back to the door.

Alex's hand was on the doorknob, when another hand suddenly covered his. Alex froze, his back toward the stranger. Izzie's eyes grew wide while Mark just looked amused.

"I know you ain't that stupid," said the voice. Karev turned around and came face-to-face with Dr. Bailey.

"Dr. Bailey, how are you tonight?" Alex asked, feigning innocence.

Bailey ignored him and continued. "I mean, you graduated from medical school, didn't you?"

"Yeah, of course," he said, confused.

"That means you should be able to read, correct? Or am I wrong in my assumptions?" she asked him sternly.

"No, no. I can read," he said, nodding. "Been reading for about..." he paused, visibly counting in his head. "...22 years now," he concluded.

"Then would you mind telling me what that red sign on the door says, Karev?" she asked him, nodding at the sign.

Alex sighed, and began to read. "Quarantine: Effective dates from March 25th to April 19th. Due to communicable disease, Ebola. No one shall enter or leave these premises without authorization by the Washington Department of Public Health. Any individual entering a quarantine premises with or without authorization of the health department or County Board of Health may be isolated or quarantined. Pursuant to Washington Code section 135.38, any individual who knowingly violates-" he read off rapidly, before being stopped by Bailey.

"Thank you, Dr. Karev. That'll be enough. I believe you get the idea?" Bailey asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered, rolling his eyes. He handed her the bag of food and waddled away in his suit.

"Umm, Dr. Bailey?" Izzie asked hesitantly. "We're going to be in here for three weeks. How are we going to eat?"

"I will be bringing you food, Dr. Stevens," she answered matter-of-factly. She grabbed a surgical mask, put it on, opened the door, and handed her the bag.

"Well then, how come-" she started to ask.

Bailey stepped out of the room and shut the door again. "I just wanted to bust Karev's nuts. I'm in one of those moods" she said casually. She politely nodded to the doctors, and walked back off down the hall.

Mark eyed Izzie slyly, with an evil smirk on his face.

She was a little concerned. "What are you-" she started cautiously, squinting her eyes at him.

Before she could say another word, he abruptly lunged toward her. Izzie let out a small scream of surprise. Mark grabbed the food and hurried over to the armchair.

"Oh my, God. You are such a brat," she said, laughing.

He greedily tore into the bag. "I am famished," he announced loudly. "Here, dig in," he said, tossing her a carton of lo mein.

Izzie caught it, and settled comfortably on the bed. She watched Mark begin to devour his food, and smiled.

_"Maybe this whole situation won't be so bad after all,"_ she thought to herself, digging into the noodles, and the two ate their dinner in contented silence.


	7. Dream a Little Dream of Me

**A/N:** Here's the next chapter. Please Read and Review! I appreciate all feedback!

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_"Maybe this whole situation won't be so bad after all,"_ _she thought to herself, digging into the noodles, and the two ate their dinner in contented silence. _

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**Chapter 7: Dream a Little Dream of Me**

_Izzie drew in her breath as Mark slowly crept closer to her. With every step he took, she could feel her heart begin to pound louder. As he continued toward her, his eyes never left hers, not for a moment. Finally, he reached her. He placed his left hand on the small of her back and pulled her close. There was no distance at all between them, as their bodies were touching.Then, with his right hand, he reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. She felt her knees buckle with his touch. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathlessly sighed, letting waves of passion wash over her. When she felt his hand move to her cheek, she reopened her eyes and found herself staring directly into his once again. The he began lowering his head, and she knew this was the moment. His right hand joined his left on her back. She placed her hand on his cheek, feeling his rough beard on her palm. He closed his eyes and encased his lips with hers. Her free hand moved to the back of his head, trying even still, to pull him closer, pressing her lips hard against his. Never abandoning their position, he led her to the small hospital bed. He gently laid her down, finally breaking apart when he was on top of her, supporting his weight with his strong arms. "Izzie," he said, whispering seductively in her ear. "Izzie. Izzie..."_

"Stevens!" the voice calling her name changed. Gone was the soft and alluring voice, and in it's place was a much louder one, coming from further away. Not to mention the fact that that she was now being called by her last name.

"Stevens!" the voice called again, this time jolting her from her sleep. Eyes fluttering open, they focused on Mark, sitting at the end of the bed near her feet.

"What time is it?" she asked groggily while squirming to sit up. She had noticed that it was still dark outside.

"Around 5:15," he said casually.

Izzie fell back on the bed with a groan. "Why the hell did you wake me up?" she asked, whining tiredly. And if she were to be honest, she was a little upset he interrupted her dream.

"Can't sleep anymore," was Mark's simple reply.

Hearing that, Izzie sat up again and looked him straight in the eye. "Seriously?" she asked incredulously. "You woke me up to tell me you couldn't sleep?"

"No. I woke you up because I was bored," he said, flashing his best innocent grin.

She rolled her eyes. "You really are a little kid," she told him.

"So I've been told," he said, shrugging it off, being all nonchalant.

A devilish grin took over his face. "Are you gonna tell me what you were dreaming about?" he asked cunningly.

A look of panic flashed across Izzie's face. She frantically raked her brain, trying to remember if she could have potentially have said anything incriminating during her dream.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," she said with a short, nervous laugh.

"Come on," he said, smirking. "It's 5:15 in the morning. Humor me."

Izzie's heart began pounding furiously. _"Oh my, God. How does he know?"_she thought to himself. Mark Sloan: good-looking, charming, doctor, mind-reader? Jeeze, what couldn't the guy do?

"How do you know I was even dreaming?" she asked, trying to keep her cool on the outside, but on the inside, she was panicking. If he knew what was going on, and/or what was _about_ to go on in her dream, she'd never be able to live that one down.

"Well, you had a pretty big smile on your face," he answered. Izzie let out an inward sigh of relief. He didn't know after all.

"You know, I can't remember what it was about now," she said, avoiding eye contact.

Mark looked at her like he wasn't sure if he should believe her. "If you say so..." he said, trailing off and squinting his eyes.

Izzie decided to quickly change the subject. She knew if he kept pressing, he would somehow managed to get it out of her, and she couldn't take that chance.

"So, now that we're both awake at 5 o'clock, what do you propose we do?" she asked, pulling herself into a complete sitting position with her feet tucked under her.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. He opened his mouth to speak, but Izzie quickly cut him off, "Don't even go there," she told him, her voice letting him know she was extremely serious.

Mark held his hands up in surrender. "Never said I was going to. Besides, it's too early for that."

She just looked at him. "Yeah, you're right. It's never too early," he stated.

Izzie rolled her eyes, got up and crawled down the bed, moving closer to him. She sad crossed-legged, looking at him, while his legs were hanging over the side of the bed. "Let's play the questions game," she suggested. "I don't know very much about you, and considering we're going to spending a lot of time together, we might as well get to know each other a little better."

He crossed his arms and took a deep breath in, mulling it over and nodding. "Yeah. Sounds interesting. How does it work?" he asked her, shifting slightly so and his body was more angled toward hers.

"It's really easy," she said, growing a little excited. This was her chance to dive into the enigma that was Dr. Mark Sloan. "One person gets to ask the other three questions, and that person _has_ to answer them."

"No matter what?" Mark asked, flashing another of his signature grins.

Immediately, Izzie began having second thoughts. Mark Sloan being to ask her anything he wanted and she _had_ to answer? That could end up in a potentially dangerous situation. There's no telling what he would want to know. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to be obligated to answer them. But then again, if she wanted him to open up to her, she was going to have to be willing to do the same.

Izzie exhaled deeply. "Yeah," she said, nodding. "No matter what."

His lips pursed as he considered what she had just said. "Do I get to go first?" he asked, smiling coyly.

"Oh, this is not going to end well," she said softly, under her breath.

He look at her, amused. She sat up straight, took another deep breath and quickly tried to mentally prepare herself for what could possibly be coming.

"Go ahead. Let me have it," she said, forcing herself to smile.

Mark slowly stroked his chin, thinking. He stopped suddenly, and his grin slowly widened. "Oh, God. I don't like that look," she said nervously laughing.

"Don't worry. It won't be too painful," he told sarcastically, patting her hand.

Izzie laughed. "Oh yeah. I'm so sure," her stomach fluttering at his touch, even if it was meant to mock her.

"I would like to know...," he began, drawing out his words. She sucked in her breath, waiting to hear what he wanted to know. "what's your favorite color?"

Izzie let out her breathe with a loud laugh. "Seriously?" she asked, amazed.

"Yeah," he answered, certifying his question. "You can tell about about a person by their favorite color."

She studied him carefully. She was trying to decide whether or not he was being serious. "Pink," she answered cautiously, eyes narrowing at Mark.

"Yup. Should have seen that one coming," he said confidently.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, unsure whether or not she should be offended.

"People who like pink are talented. They are friendly and passionate, have charm and warmth, and are usually incurable romantics," he said like it was the most normal thing in the world. Izzie looked at him, mouth gaping, like he had just grown an extra head.

"But then again," he continued, "pink people also tend to keep inner feelings hidden. Which is exactly what I said yesterday."

Izzie immediately closed her mouth. He just rattled her a little. "How do you know all this?" she asked him quietly, absolutely amazed.

He just shrugged it off. "My older sister's a psychologist. She used to practice on me," he told her, smiling. "I'm right, aren't I?" he asked.

She softly hit him on the shoulder, "Shut up, you know you are," she said. "Just get on with the questions."

"Okay, okay. Keep your pants on. Or you know...don't. Either way will work," he said, so charmingly that for a split-second, Izzie actually considered the latter option.

"Favorite food?" he asked randomly.

"Oh, come on! Lo mein from Jade Lee!" she said passionately, hitting him again, maybe this time, a little too hard.

Mark grimaced a bit. "Ow," he said, slightly laughing.

Izzie's hand flew to her mouth and her eyes grew wide. "Oh, my God! I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" she rambled nervously.

"Dude, S& M much?" he asked, eyes dancing with laughter.

This triggered Izzie to drop her jaw and smack him again. "Oh!" she said, realizing what she did. "Sorry. Instinct."

"Guess that just answered my question," he said to himself, rubbing his shoulder.

"Yeah, you're right. That was your third question. My turn," she announced gleefully.

It was Mark's turn to look shocked. "Hey, wait a sec-"

She put her hand directly over his mouth, silencing him, and blushing because the first thing that came to mind was how soft his lips were.

"Nope. Three questions. That's it," she said, taking her hand away and casting her previous thought aside.

Mark sighed, defeated. "Okay, hit me...oh wait. You already did that. Like three times," he said like he was in disbelief.

"Pink, remember?" she asked him sweetly. "Passionate."

"That wasn't passion. That was more like violence," he retorted, only joking. "But go ahead, ask away."

Izzie saw this as her shot. She felt like she was beginning to see Mark as an actual person, but he still was hiding behind his charm. He went about everything in almost a teasing manner. She thought that if she asked the right questions she could find out who he really was, behind all his charisma and cockiness. And she thought she knew just where to start.

"Okay," she said, her voice softening, tone growing seriously. "All joking aside, yesterday you told me you knew that I had my heart broken and was trying to cover it up because that's who you were too. What did you mean by that?" she asked, looking straight into his icy blue eyes.

Mark was stunned to say the least. His eyes immediately met the floor, and let out a long, loud, breath of hair, running his hand through his light hair. "Wow," he said, looking back up at Izzie. "You really don't hold anything back, do you?" he asked, slightly impressed by her audacity.

"You can tell me," she said slowly. "Seriously. Trust me, I'm not one to judge," she told him with a half-smile.

He looked back to the ground. "Okay. I'll tell you," he said, speaking to the floor. "Truth? I've never been good at showing emotions. That's just how I am. Then I met Addison in med school She was my best friend's girlfriend. And even so, I was in love with her. She understood me better than anyone I had ever met. She saw past all my bullshit. I felt like she was the one person I could be myself around. But it wasn't like I could tell her how I feel. She was with Derek. And then they were married and started having problems. I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to show her that I was the one she should be with. So we started an affair. And things were great. Or so I thought. She left me to come to Seattle to get Derek back. So then I came to Seattle to get her back. And what kills me is that she chose him even though it was painfully obvious that he was in love with his intern. I'm in love with a woman who doesn't love me back," he said, voice straining to keep it together.

He looked back up at Izzie, "So there it is. My sob story. What did you think?" he asked, once again, trying to hide his emotions with a joke.

Izzie was so overcome with emotion in that moment. She had seen the real Mark Sloan, now truly understood why he was the way he was. She didn't respond to his question, at least not with words. No one could ever accuse Izzie Stevens of over-thinking things. Acting on impulse, she took his head in her hands and kissed him. It was a soft kiss, meant to be comforting. But once, she pulled away and saw a look in his eyes that told her that he wanted more, she kissed him again, this time harder and more passionate. He reciprocated her kiss, parting his lips with his tongue. They pulled away and just looked at each other wordlessly.

Outside, someone just happened to be passing by the quarantined room at exactly the right moment. Standing outside, watching the kiss, stunned by what she saw, was none other than Addison.


	8. Deny, Deny, Deny

**A/N:** Okay, so I don't know if I'm completely happy with this chapter. But I thought I'd put it up anyway. Let me know what you guys think. I appreciate it!! 3

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_Outside, someone just happened to be passing by the quarantined room at exactly the right moment. Standing outside, watching the kiss, stunned by what she saw, was none other than Addison._

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**Chapter 8: Deny, Deny, Deny**

Addison Montgomery-Shepherd stood outside the room, unable to move, just watching Mark and Izzie's kiss. She knew she shouldn't have been shocked, after all, she had known him for around 15 years, she knew the type of person he was. But still, Addison couldn't help it. He was such a hypocrite. He tells her he came to Seattle to get her back, and there he was, making out with random, slutty interns.

Seeing the pair break apart, Addison regained the use of her legs, and hurried down the hall so they wouldn't see her standing there. Coming to the nurse's station, she found Callie leaning against the desk, reviewing charts.

"Good morning, Addison," she said casually, not looking up from the chart.

She just responded with a noncommital grunt as she too, grabbed a chart.

Callie looked up at Addison, raising an eyebrow. "Okay...," she began, drawing out the word. "maybe it isn't."

Addison slammed the chart onto the desk. "You know what really bothers me? The fact that I am letting him bother me," she said in a slightly higher-pitched voice than normal.

"Okay, I'm a little lost," Callie said, genuinely confused. "Are we talking about Derek here?" she asked her friend.

She ignored her friends question and continued rambling. "You know, I come out here to try and make my marriage work. And then _he_ shows up, begging me to go back to New York with him. You would think I'd be happy that he's making out with some intern. Now he can leave Derek and I alone. Why the hell am I actually upset about this?" she asked, rattled.

Callie slowly nodded her head in recognition. "You're talking about Sloan," she said slowly.

"The one-and only," Addison smiled in sarcastic cheerfulness.

"He's been here, like, a week and he's already slept with two other people. Man does work fast," Callie said, under out her breath, with a surprised look on her face.

"What do you mean 'two'?" she asked roughly, eyes growing wide.

Callie froze. Had she said that out loud? She couldn't tell her friend that she had slept with Mark too. She opened her mouth even though she didn't really know what she was going to say. Thankfully though, Addison cut her off.

"See? There I go again? I shouldn't care. He can do whatever the hell he wants," she said, rather unconvincingly.

Callie took a deep breath. "Addison, I'm gonna tell you what I think," she said carefully.

"Okay. What?" she asked quickly.

"You have to promise me you're not going to get upset," Callie told her, looking Addison straight in the eyes.

Addison shook her head. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm not going to get upset," she said.

"Do you think that maybe you're upset because..." Callie began, not exactly sure how to say what she needed to. She took a breath and decided to just go ahead and say it. "...well, maybe you're just jealous," she blurted out.

The redhead's eyes grew wide and her eyebrow shot up."You're insane," she said with a nervous laugh. "Of course I'm not jealous. I'm back with Derek," she said, obviously lying through her laughter.

Callie didn't respond. She just looked at her friend, letting her know that she wasn't fooling anyone.

Addison turned away from her, adverting her eyes. "Damn," she whispered quietly to herself. Callie was right and Addison damn well knew it.

Meanwhile, Izzie and Mark were looking at each other in silence, the realization of what had just occurred washing over them.

After a few moments, Izzie made an attempt to break the silence. "Okay, what just-" she began, but at the exact same time, Mark also tried to speak. "You know, we don't have-" he began before they both cut each other for.

Izzie flushed red with embarrassment. "What were you saying?" she asked, not being able to look him in the eyes.

Mark's cool demeanor suddenly returned. "No, ladies first," he insisted calmly, continuing to look at her even though she wouldn't return the action.

"What just happened?" she asked quietly.

A smirk appeared on his face. "I believe you just kissed me," he told her cockily.

This warranted a reaction from the blonde. Her head shot up and her eyes locked into his. "Oh, like you didn't kiss me back!" she exclaimed, a little flustered.

He looked at her, eyes crinkling and wide smile, classic "McSteamy". "A hott blonde wanted me. What was I supposed to do?" he asked her, moving to put his arm around her.

Izzie immediately shrugged it off and jumped up from the bed. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, suddenly very annoyed.

Mark was startled by the sudden, extreme mood shift. "I don't know what-" he began, his voice portraying his confusion.

"A minute ago you were opening up. Letting me in past all your crap," she said looking at him, eyes flashing. "And now you're putting up that damn wall again! Why?" she asked, lowering her voice with the question.

A million thoughts were running through Mark's head. She was right, he had allowed himself to open up to her. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he did know that he didn't like it. He had only ever let one other girl see who he truly was, and look how well that turned out for him. He didn't like feeling exposed. To him, that was a sign of weakness. So even if he did soften his resolve, and let Izzie catch a glimpse of how broken he really was, he wasn't about to let it happen again.

He forced out a laugh. "You actually believed all that?" he asked, trying to make his voice sound shocked. "I wasn't being serious. Addison hurt me?" he scoffed. "Please. I'm not that pathetic," he told her, willing himself to look her in the eyes.

Izzie couldn't believe what she was hearing. That guy was unbelievable. She had never met anyone who can achieve such two different extremes in the matter of minutes. Oh, and the whole "wasn't being serious" thing? What a total lie. She had seen him, she had heard the emotion in his voice. She knew he was good, but he just wasn't that good. Whatever, if he wanted to be an emotionless hermit, she wasn't about to stop him. She was through with trying reach him. She should have stuck with her first impressions of him, she would have saved herself a lot of effort.

"Whatever," she muttered, going over to settle into the armchair. "Oh and that kiss?" she began, looking at him deadpan. "Moment of weakness. It didn't mean anything," she told, lying straight through her teeth.

Her mind told her to just forget Mark Sloan, but she couldn't ignore her heart, which was completely contradicting her brain, telling her not to give on up on him, that she could keep trying to get him to really open it. But just because that's what it was telling her, didn't mean she had to believe it. She grabbed the remote from off the bedside table and turned it on. She couldn't ignore what her heart was saying, but she could certainly try.


	9. Whatever Lies Will Help You Rest

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay in the update. My friend has been going through a tough time, so I've been with her a lot lately. And of course this is the week my professors decided to pile on the work. But anyway, here's the latest chapter of "Virus". Many props to Nichole who helped to kick my ass in gear and get this out. Anyway, as always, thanks to the readers who have reviewed. That also helps with motivation!

_

* * *

__"Whatever," she muttered, going over to settle into the armchair. "Oh and that kiss?" she began, looking at him deadpan. "Moment of weakness. It didn't mean anything," she told, lying straight through her teeth. _

_Her mind told her to just forget Mark Sloan, but she couldn't ignore her heart, which was completely contradicting her brain, telling her not to give on up on him, that she could keep trying to get him to really open it. But just because that's what it was telling her, didn't mean she had to believe it. She grabbed the remote from off the bedside table and turned it on. She couldn't ignore what her heart was saying, but she could certainly try._

* * *

**Chapter 9: Whatever Lies Will Help You Rest**

Izzie continued to ignore Mark. She didn't even so much as glance at him for the rest of the morning. She kept her focus on mind-numbing daytime television while he lounged on the bed and flipped through a newspaper Bailey had slid under the door, while stealing glances at her every so often. About half-way through another episode of "I Ain't Your Baby's Daddy," Mark had had enough. Normally, he wasn't the type for causal conversation, but it was only their second day in quarantine and he was already getting cabin fever. He had to get the blonde to talk to him, to acknowledge his presence, or he was almost positive he was going to begin climbing the walls.

Sighing, Mark laid the newspaper on the bed next to him and looked at Izzie. When he received no response, he sighed again, this time louder and more intentional. However, once again, Izzie's eyes never left the TV screen. He sighed for a third time but it proved to be no avail. He decided to try to use words to get her attention.

"Come on, you can't honestly find Jerry Springer more attractive than me," he said jokingly, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

This tactic did not prove to be successful either. He was not able to garner any kind of response from her, except for the subtle clenching of her jaw while she continued to watch the TV. No, she wasn't even watching it. He could tell she was just staring at it blankly, not really processing the pictures on the screen. Growing slightly frustrated, he decided to take a more direct approach.

"Look, I don't really know why you're mad at me, but what do you say we call a truce?" he asked sincerely, but with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

He finally got a response from Izzie, although it was not quite the one he was looking for. Her head whirled around to glare at him. If looks could kill, Mark Sloan would be an immediate dead man. Mark had never seen a look of such disgust on anyone, and he had seen Derek's reaction when he caught him with Addison.

"Truce?" she asked him, flabbergasted. "You've _got_ to be kidding me!"she exclaimed with a short, ironic laugh.

"What? So you're not going to talk to me for three weeks?" he asked her, his voice beginning to rise slightly.

Izzie let out a groan of irritation, got up from the chair, and stalked over to the bed. Mark was sitting at the head of the bed, with his legs stretched out in front of him. She grabbed them, shoved them out of her way, and plopped down in the spot they had just abandoned.

"You don't wanna talk." she said pointedly, looking him straight in the eyes, her brown ones clashing with his blue ones.

Mark's eyebrow raised slightly, but he held her glare. "Oh, I don't?" he asked her. He would have been amused if she wasn't being so stubborn.

"All you want to do is tell stupid jokes, make degrading comments and hide behind your tough exterior." she said, her gaze unyielding.

He opened his mouth to retort, but she cut him off. "Actually, I take that back. It seems you _do _have a few moments of sincerity, but as soon as they're over, you deny that they even happen."

"What right do you have to judge me?" he asked her incredulously. "We've known each other, what? Like two days? I wasn't aware one of the job requirements here was to divulge my personal life to complete strangers."

"But you did tell me a little about your personal life," she insisted urgently, fighting the urge to cover his hand with hers. "And don't even try to say you were kidding, because you didn't see the look on your face."

Mark had had enough of this. "You know what? Fine. You're right," he said loudly, getting up from the bed. He stood in front of Izzie, and from her sitting position, he towered over her, making him seem somewhat menacing. "Maybe I did let my guard down slightly. Maybe I thought that, you know, maybe this chick's okay. Maybe I can trust her," he said angrily, looking down at her, his eyes flashing.

"You can trust me," Izzie said softly, hanging her head, almost scared of Mark's sudden transformation.

He realized that he may have gone a little too far. He sat back down on the bed. "Oh really?" he asked, softening his voice, causing her to look back at him.

"Yeah," she answered, almost breathlessly.

He studied her face for a moment before replying. "Tell me that again when you're willing to be honest about why you're on probation,"

Izzie's eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped slightly. He had caught her off guard. He was right, and he knew it. Why would he open up to her if she couldn't be honest with him.

Mark sat patiently for a minute, waiting for her reply. However, when none came, he moved back to the head of the bed, and stretched out in his original position, before any of their conversation started. "Yeah. That's what I thought," he said, wiggling down so that he was horizontal on the bed. "I'm gonna take a nap," he said, and with that, he rolled over so that his back was to her, and closed his eyes.

She sat on the bed for a while, going over what just happened in her head. She had never had someone put her in her place before. And somehow, she found Mark's brutal honest undeniably attractive.

Trying to push that thought out of her head, she moved back to the armchair and let her mind become consumed with "I'm a Pregnant Stripper", pushing all thoughts of Mark Sloan aside for the moment.

Meanwhile, Addison sat in the CAT scan room while her patient was being scanned, an emotional battle waging inside her. She loved Derek. She knew she did. He was her husband. Yet she couldn't seem to shake the thought of Mark and that intern. Was Callie right? Was she actually jealous that Mark was kissing another woman? Oh, who was she kidding? Of course she was jealous. But she just couldn't seem to figure out why.

Sitting there, with her elbow on the desk, her head in her hand, drumming her fingers against her cheek, she came to a realization. She missed his attention. She missed the way he looked at her like she was the only woman in the world. Derek had never looked at her like that. Well, maybe he had at the beginning of their relationship, but he didn't know. But she saw him look at Meredith like that. Her god damn husband looked at a 12 year-old like he should be looking at her. That was the problem. Addison wasn't still in love with Mark, she was in love with the _idea _of Mark.

Suddenly, Addison knew what she had to do. She had to make Derek realize what a good thing he had with her as his wife. That would get delete Mark from her life once and for all.

"Page me with her results?" she asked the lab technician running the scan.

When she was assured she would be, she hurried out of the room in search of her husband. She found Derek in the cafeteria, enjoying a coffee break.

She bent down, and whispered in his ear, "Come with me."

He jumped up in surprise. "Addie, what the he-"

She silenced him with a kiss. When she pulled away, he looked even more confused. But he wordlessly got up, and followed his wife out. She led him to the abandoned wing of the hopsital, where the interns usually hung out.

"Addison, would you care to tell me where you're taking me?" Derek tried to ask again.

Finally, she found what she was looking for. She opened the door and forcefully shoved him into the supply closet. She stepped into the darkness after him, closing the door behind her, and leaving all thoughts of Mark Sloan on the other side.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so I'm not quite sure yet where I want to take this story. If anyone has any suggestions of what they'd like to happen I'm more than willing to listen to them. In fact, they would be totally appreciated. And of course, I'll give credit if I use any of the ideas. Thanks so much, guys! 


	10. Don't Confess

**A/N:** Hey guys! I just wanted to say thanks for the reviews. They're always welcome!!! (hinthint) Because you know, they always help with the whole motivation thing. And I'd love to hear any suggestions as to what you'd like to see happen in the story. Thanks!!!

* * *

**Chapter 10: Don't Confess**

Hours had passed since Izzie and Mark's "conversation", if you could even call it that. She was still channel surfing and he was still passed out on the bed. She heard a soft knock on the door and looked over to find Meredith standing there, holding a brown paper bag. Like Alex the day before, she too, was wearing a contamination suit, and looked very more ridiculous than he had, the giant suit consuming her tiny frame.

Izzie smothered a laugh. She tiptoed over to the door, careful not to wake Mark, and opened just enough for her friend to slip the bag through the door.

"Hey, Iz. How are you holding up?" Meredith asked her sympathetically.

"I'm all right for now," Izzie said softly, glancing at Mark's sleeping form behind her. "But I don't know how I'll be able to survive three weeks in here," she told her honestly.

Meredith smiled. "Well, that's what the bag is for," she told Izzie, gesturing to it.

She looked down at the bag and then back up at Meredith, eyes growing wide in excitement. "What's in here?" she asked, like a kid at Christmastime.

"It's not much," she replied. "I just thought you'd might want a few essentials from home. I threw your toothbrush in there, a few snacks, some of your clothes..." she said as Izzie began pulling the items out of the bag and placing them on a table.

"And of course," Meredith continued, "I brought your Bible," she said with a grin as Izzie pulled out the latest issue of _Cosmopolitian. _

Izzie beamed at her friend. "You are a goddess!" she said excitedly, and maybe a little to loud, because she heard a groan come from the hospital bed. Turning around, she saw Mark shift so that he was now on his side with his back toward the two interns. Izzie held her breath for a moment, but it didn't seem like she actually woke him, so she turned her attention back to Meredith, who was looking at her with an amused expression on her face.

"What was that all about?" Meredith asked, eyeing Izzie curiously from under the plastic face shield.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," she answered, feeling a blush beginning to rise in her cheeks.

Meredith gave her a look. "Oh, come on. That glance at McSteamy,"

"I just wanted to make sure I didn't wake him up." Izzie said, feigning innocence.

Meredith folded her arms across her chest, a difficult task considering the puffiness of her suit. "Okay, two days ago you couldn't stand him. What going on with you guys?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Izzi insisted, looking straight into Meredith's eyes.

She tilted her head to the side, and looked at the blonde through narrowed eyes. "Izzie, we live together. I know when you're lying."

Meredith's persistence was starting to crack Izzie's cool demeanor. Her face grew even redder, and she had to avert her eyes from her friend's.

Those tell-tale signs of lying did not go unnoticed. "Izzie Stevens!" Meredith gasped. "Something happened between you two! You tell me right now!"she exclaimed eagerly.

Izzie quickly tried to stifle her friend. "Shh! What if he hears you?" she whispered anxiously.

She gave her a "look". "Look at him," she said, gesturing behind behind Izzie. "The guy's passed out. He can't hear me."

She turned her head to glance at Mark. It didn't appear that he had moved at all. "Well, can you at least be a little quieter?"

She complied with her friend's request. "Stop avoiding the question," Meredith whispered loudly.

"What question?" she asked, genuinely confused.

She received yet another look. "Izzie!" Meredith uttered impatiently.

"What?" she asked, a little frustrated. She was honestly lost in the conversation.

Meredith sighed, realizing she was going to have to spell it out for her friend. "What's going on between you and McSteamy?" she clarified slowly, like she was speaking to a child.

Izzie once again avoided Meredith's gaze. "Nothing. I can't stand that guy," she said, looking the bag Meredith brought that she had placed on the floor.

Meredith uncrossed her hands and they flew to her hips. "You're lying," she said blatantly.

"How do you know?" she asked the bag.

"You can't look me in the eyes," she said, amused.

Izzie's head shot up and her eyes locked into Meredith's, trying to defy her.

Meredith rolled her eyes. She was used to Izzie's stubbornness. "Fine. Whatever. But you're fidgeting," she said patiently, knowing her friend wold crack eventually.

"What?" she asked, knowing full well where Meredith was going with this, but trying to deny it with all she had.

"You're fidgeting. That means you're dying to tell me something," she explained.

Izzie exhaled loudly, a sign of surrender. "Okay, fine. You win. I'll tell you. But you have to promise not to react in anyway," she said, concluding that there was no way her friend was going to give up and it just might be easier to tell her.

Meredith smiled, remembering, not long ago, she had made Cristina promise the very same thing. "I promise."

Izzie took a deep breath and paused for a moment, both for dramatic effect and because she was worried about her friend's reaction. "Well, we kinda kissed," she told her through gritted teeth.

Forgetting her promise to Izzie, Meredith's eyes grew wide. "Kinda? How do you_ kinda_ kiss?" she asked, in absolute shock.

She decided there was no point in holding back any more. "All right, we made out. Are you happy now?" she asked Meredith.

"Izzie-" she began softly, before she was cut off.

"But it's not like it meant anything," Izzie said trying to justify her actions more for herself than for Meredith.

"A kiss always means something," Meredith insisted gently.

Izzie shook her head fervently. "This one didn't," she denied.

"Fine," she said, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere in this argument. "But then why did you do it?" she asked carefully.

Izze sighed dramatically and leaned her head against the glass window of the door. "Oh, Meredith, I have no idea what came over me. He was opening up with me. He was telling me about Addison, and how he really, honestly loved her. He was so sincere. I mean, the asshole was showing actual human emotions. And he just looked so hurt. And I...I just kissed him. It was really quick. But then he kissed me back. And then like literally three seconds later he was back to his old, jerky self. And he just... ugh! He's just aggravating the hell out of me!" she ranted, allowing all of her emotions to flow out from inside of her.

Meredith looked at her friend compassionately. "Don't let it bother you so much," she said quietly. "You know what guys like him are like."

Izzie let out a short laugh. "I know, I know. But I just can't seem to stop thinking about it." she said, annoyed.

She sighed, knowing what she had to tell Izzie. "You know what that means don't you?" she asked cautiously.

She stared off into space for a moment. "That no one will blame me if I stab him with a scalpel?" she asked, distracted.

Meredith smiled. "It means that you actually have feelings for McSteamy," she informed her friend.

Izzie's eyes grew wide, Meredith's comment obviously flustering her. "What? That's crazy," she said with a forced laugh.

Izzie's reaction was the only proof Meredith needed. "Admit it. You can't figure him out and it's killing you because you like him," she persisted.

"I hate you, you know that?" she said stubbornly, but deep down, knowing her friend was right.

She shrugged. "You may hate me, but you definitely love McSteamy," she told her frankly.

"Meredith!" she exclaimed, surprised by her brutal honestly.

She crossed her puffy arms across her chest once again. "Don't even try and tell me it isn't true," she said sternly.

Izzie rolled her head, sighing."Well, there _is_ something about him..." Meredith didn't respond, but patiently waited for her to continue. "Okay, fine. The man's a hottie," she finally admitted quickly. Meredith squealed with excitement. "But you can't tell anything to anyone!" she told her, her eyes showing just how serious she was.

Meredith mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key, causing giggles to escape from Izzie. Meredith smiled and joined the laughter. As both girls giggled, they were completely unaware that Mark had been awake the entire time, and was listening to their every word.


	11. Beauty in the Breakdown

**A/N:** Hey guys! For this chapter, I used quotes from episodes 2.27 "Losing My Religion" and 3.3 "Sometimes a Fantasy". So I don't own those. Also, I know that after Denny died, Izzie wore his sweater a lot, but let's just pretend she didn't, for the sake of the story. Anyway, I wanna say thanks again for the reviews. Reviewsmotivation for me! Keep 'em coming! haha. And as always, I'm totally welcome to suggestions as to what you guys would like to see happen. Hope you guys like the new chapter.

_

* * *

__Izzie rolled her head, sighing."Well, there is something about him..." Meredith didn't respond, but patiently waited for her to continue. "Okay, fine. The man's a hottie," she finally admitted quickly. Meredith squealed with excitement. "But you can't tell anything to anyone!" she told her, her eyes showing just how serious she was._

_Meredith mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key, causing giggles to escape from Izzie. Meredith smiled and joined the laughter. As both girls giggled, they were completely unaware that Mark had been awake the entire time, and was listening to their every word._

* * *

**Chapter 11: Beauty in the Breakdown**

As soon as Meredith left, Izzie carried the bag she had brought her to the armchair. She sat down, and continued to go through the things Meredith had put in there. She smiled, thinking how lucky she was to have such a thoughtful friend. She pulled out the items one by one. But once her hand brushed against something made up of soft yarn, she felt her heart stop. She ran her fingers across the fabric, feeling the individual stitches, almost afraid to know what would happen if she actually looked at it with her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled her hand out of the bag, taking with it, the object. She felt tears immediately begin to well up in her eyes. In the bag, Meredith had included the sweater Izzie had knitted for Denny. She had come back into possession of it after Denny had passed. She kept it folded in the bottom drawer of her dresser, hidden from sight. And now, here it was, and it brought back a flood of memories to Izzie. She closed her eyes, and lifted the mahogany sweater to her face, breathing it in. It still smelled like him, a masculine aroma of musk and cinnamon. She leaned her head against the back of the chair with the sweater still up to her face. She thought back to that day. It seemed like only yesterday he was lying in the hospital bed, declaring his love for her.

_"For five years, I've had to live by the choices of my doctors. The guys that cut me open decided my life. There wasn't one choice that was mine. And now, I have this heart that beats and works. I get to be like everybody else, I get to make my own decisions, have my own life, do whatever the damned hell I choose. Now here's the good part, so you listen close. What I choose, is you. You're who I want to wake up with and go to bed with and do everything in between with. I get a choice now. I get to choose. I choose you, Izzie Stevens.'_

The memory became too much for her. She broke down. Her head fell into her lap and she began sobbing loudly.

Mark had been still lying in the bed, pretending to sleep as not to break his cover. However, when he heard the sobs emitting from the intern, curiosity overpowered his desire to continue stealthily gathering incriminating evidence that he could somehow use against the blonde.

Opening his eyes, but keeping them in slits so that Izzie would not be aware of his alertness, he watched her her tiny body convulse with every sob. This is not how he had imagined the rest of the evening going. He had pictured himself slyly making comments to Izzie, implying that he _may_ have heard the contents for her conversation with Meredith. He would mess with her mind for a while, which invariably would probably have gotten her more frustrated with him, but it would have been worth it. She was amusing when she was upset. But not this kind of upset. Seeing her like that made Mark uncomfortable. He didn't know how to handle his own emotions, never mind those of a virtual stranger. But still, hearing her wails, he knew he had to try. He wasn't _that_ much of a cold-hearted human being. Okay, so maybe he was, but he still didn't like seeing a woman cry.

Sighing, he pulled himself to a sitting position. "Okay, Stevens. Spill,"

Izzie lifted her head from her lap at the sound of his voice. Both her eyes and her face were red, while tears still cascaded down her cheeks and she struggled to catch her breath.

"I...I...I..." was all she could manage to choke out between sobs. She gave up attempting speech, and her head fell back to her lap.

Knowing what he had to do, Mark got up from the bed and slid onto the arm of the chair Izzie occupied. She didn't acknowledge his presence. Mark sat there awkwardly for a minute, trying to decide how to proceed. He opened his mouth to speak, but all the words that came to mind seemed trivial and he doubted that they would provide any comfort.

His hand crept slowly from his lap toward her back. It hovered there for a moment, and as it edged closer, he would quickly pull it back, uncomfortable with the current situation. This occurred a few more times, until finally he sucked it up and rested his hand on her back. Her sobbing seceded when she felt the pressure of his hand, but she didn't look up until she felt that hand begin to move in circles across her back.

Her head shot up so quickly, that Mark retracted his hand in surprise. She looked at him through her tear-filled eyes, the brown in them barely recognizable, camouflaged by extreme redness.

"I hate the bride thing," she told him with as much composure as she could muster, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand.

Mark had not been expecting that. He tried to react, but he wasn't sure exactly how to. It seemed Izzie Stevens was the only one who was able to catch him off guard.

She however, did not notice his lack of reaction, and continued, her eyes never leaving his. "I hate the pictures in the magazines of the girl with the veil...and the flowers that she's sniffing. Like it never occurred to her to put her nose in there until there was a camera pointed at her. I hate the idea of bridesmaids...and the colors...and does the bustle make my ass look bigger or smaller. I hate the whole thing and I never wanted to be that girl. That girl is stupid... and shallow. So why the hell is that girl's thoughts running through my head? " she asked, an ironic tone running through her voice.

He let her talk, taking in her every word, even though he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. But the confusion must have shown on his face, for she began to explain herself to him.

"Denny was my fiancé. I actually met him here, in the hospital. He was a heart patient, on a LVAD while waiting for a transplant. And they found a heart, but there was someone higher on the list. And the only reason that person was higher was because he had been put on the list 17 seconds before Denny. _17 seconds_," she reiterated forcefully, and then continued. "It didn't seem fair. So I took action. I cut his LVAD wire, so his condition would worsen. And it worked. They gave him the heart. I could see our future all planned out. I started imagining myself in a damn wedding dress. But there were complications. Denny died not long after the transplant. I killed him. I killed my own damn fiancé," Izzie said, surprisingly calm for the magnitude of what she was telling him, but still with tears in her eyes.

"Oh yeah," she continued with a short ironic laugh. "That's why I'm on probation too," she told him, shrugging. "Well, you told me your sob story. Now you get to here mine," she said with such biting sarcasm that it actually stung his heart. He hated seeing her like this. While he may have only known Izzie for a few days, it was obvious that she strong, maybe even too much for her own good. And for Mark to witness her breaking-down, it unnerved him.

He looked at her sympathetically, not saying a word. And she stared back at him. The longer she held his gaze, the harder it became for her to hold her self-control. Her breathing become heavier, her shoulders started to shake, and before either of them could do anything about it, she gave in, and started to cry once again.

Mark did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He slid from the arm of the chair, to squeeze in on the seat next to Izzie. He gathered her in his arms, and held her close to him, allowing her tears to soak the thin material of his T-shirt. He gently ran his fingers through her soft, blonde hair, trying to comfort her in any way that he could. He gently rocked her, quietly "shushing" her until she fell asleep in his arms.


	12. Dirty Little Secret

_He looked at her sympathetically, not saying a word. And she stared back at him. The longer she held his gaze, the harder it became for her to hold her self-control. Her breathing become heavier, her shoulders started to shake, and before either of them could do anything about it, she gave in, and started to cry once again._

_Mark did the only thing he could think of at the moment. He slid from the arm of the chair, to squeeze in on the seat next to Izzie. He gathered her in his arms, and held her close to him, allowing her tears to soak the thin material of his T-shirt. He gently ran his fingers through her soft, blonde hair, trying to comfort her in any way that he could. He gently rocked her, quietly "shushing" her until she fell asleep in his arms._

* * *

**Chapter 12: Dirty Little Secret**

Slits of light from the sun shining through the venetian blinds infiltrated the hospital room, beams dancing across Izzie's face. Eyes fluttering open, she became immensely aware of the strong pair of arms wrapped around her. Before she could become fully conscious of her total surroundings the room door opened.

"Oh, wow. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'll just...I'll just leave your breakfast trays on the bed," a rattled Cristina said quickly, her word slightly muffled from behind the surgical mask.

She didn't say any more, or give a chance to give Izzie or Mark, who had awoken at the sound of her voice, to say anything. She awkwardly placed the two breakfast trays on the table and exited the room. Izzie, still drained from the previous night's events, allowed her head to fall backward against Mark's chest with a sigh.

Cristina, amazed by the compromising position she had found Izzie and Mark in, flew to the nurses station, where Meredith and George were deep in conversation, waiting for their assignments from Bailey.

"You guys will never guess what I just saw," she blurted out excitedly, interrupting her two fellow interns.

Meredith and George turned to her, appearing uninterested. "Don't tell me," George began in a bored voice. "The bloodiest wound you've ever seen," he guessed, fairly sure of himself. They were used to Cristina's news always relating to something medical.

"No, that's not it," she told him, shaking her head frantically. "Although that would have been _awesome_!" she exclaimed, tilting her head to the left, thinking about it.

"Cristina!" Meredith snapped, bringing her back to reality.

"Oh, right," she said, shaking her head again, this time trying to refocus. "Well, I'm just going to tell you because you're never going to guess," she said with a long dramatic pause.

It was too long. "Cristina!" Meredith exclaimed, wanting her to get on with it.

A wide grin spread across her face. "I caught Izzie and McSteamy sleeping together!" she announced, proud of herself for attaining such good gossip.

Meredith's eyes grew to twice their normal size, while George's jaw dropped to the floor. "Seriously?!" Meredith asked, blinking in shock.

Cristina realized she may have used the wrong choice of words. "Well, they're weren't 'sleeping together' sleeping together," she said, clarifying. "But they were curled up in a chair together, sleeping."

George let out a laugh. "Izzie would never do that," he said in disbelief.

"Gotta feed the beast sometime," Cristina muttered.

"Cristina!" Meredith exclaimed once again.

"Well, I'm just saying-" she said firmly.

"But Izzie hates Sloan," George said, his brow furrowed, trying to make sense of Cristina's information.

Meredith jumped up onto the counter. "You know, yesterday she _did_ tell me that she thought he was hot," she said knowingly.

Cristina followed suit, and joined Meredith on the counter. "Do you think there's actually something going on between them?" she asked urgently, eager for information.

"Well, she did kiss him," Meredith slipped out before she could stop.

Cristina's eyes lit up. "Seriously? This is _such_ good gossip!" she squealed, clasping her hands together in excitement.

Meredith eyes grew wide, and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my, God. I _so_ wasn't supposed to say anything!" she said, her voice slightly distressed.

Her friend scoffed. "Please. The only person I'd tell would be you. I'm not going to say anything to anyone else."

Both heads turned to the left and looked at George expectantly. He, however, seemed to be in daze. "But she hates him," he reiterated to himself. "He slept with Callie," he murmured quietly, hanging his head.

Meredith and Cristina let him be. "Whatever we do, we can not tell Alex," Meredith said to Cristina seriously.

Cristina let out a laugh, but quickly stifled it. "Seriously. I mean, Alex is-" she began but she was quickly cut off by a loud voice.

"What the hell do y'all think this is? Coffee hour?" the voice asked harshly.

Meredith and Cristina quickly slid off the counter top just as Dr. Bailey suddenly appeared from around the corner. "I saw that, you two," she told them sternly. "Now, get to your rounds."

"Yes, Dr. Bailey," both girls mumbled apologetically, quickly grabbing clipboards and scurrying off.

"You too, O'Malley!" she yelled sharply.

George didn't waste any time quickly following after Meredith and Cristina, going down the hall muttering, "He _slept_ with Callie," to himself.

Meanwhile, Izzie and Mark ate their breakfast in awkward silence. Izzie remained in the chair while Mark had moved to the bed.

When both of them were almost done their meal, Izzie spoke up. "Look, about last night-"

"You don't have to say anything," Mark said quickly and quietly, not looking up from his tray and just shoveling another bite of waffles into his mouth.

Izzie slouched down slightly, a little surprised by his reaction. "I just wanted to apologize for my little breakdown. I don't know what came over me," she said, still feeling the need to explain herself.

"Doesn't matter," he replying, still not looking up from his breakfast, this time, taking a swig from his orange juice box.

She knitted her eyebrows together, not sure of what to make from his actions. "Well, in any case... thank you," she said quietly.

"Don't mention it," he said, gently shaking his head.

Izzie sighed, defeated, and leaned back in the chair as she refocused her attention back to the food in front of her.

Addison walked down the hall, her black heels clicking with every step. She told herself to quickly bypass the quarantined room, but she couldn't help herself. As she walked by, her head turned to look in through the windows, but she remained unnoticed by both Izzie and Mark.

However, because her head was turned, she consequently walked straight into Derek, who also wasn't paying attention to where he was going as he was engrossed in a chart.

"Hey. Good morning to you too," he joked, looking for a smile from an obviously frazzled Addison.

She pushed her glasses on top of head, and grabbed Derek's head with both of her hands. His eyes widened, slightly amused. She forcefully pulled him down to her level, capturing his lips in a passionate kiss, dominating it herself.

She pulled away and let him go. He looked at her with shining eyes and a wide smile. "You know, not that I'm complaining or anything, but what is with you lately?" he asked grinning. "The trysts in the supply closet, the early morning make-out sessions? You've never been one for public displays of affection," he told her truthfully.

"People change, Derek," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as she continued down the hall.

He watched her go as she straightened out her lab coat and strode confidently, swinging her hips, as she left him behind, scratching his head in amazement.


	13. Release the Tension

**A/N:** Hey guys! Hope you all are still enjoying "Virus". If you are (or even if you aren't) I'd love to hear about it. All feedback is appreciated! Anyway, I'm going to try and get a few updates out this week because my spring break starts on Friday and I'm not if the place I'm going is going to have internet access. But in any case, I will still be writing, ready for quick updates when I get back. If you have any suggestions as to where you wanna see the story go, or things you'd like to happen, I'd love to hear those too. Thanks, guys!

* * *

**Chapter 13: Release the Tension**

After they had finished their breakfast, Mark was relaxing on the bed, flicking his pen-light on and off while Izzie gently rocked her body back and forth in the armchair, both bored out of their minds but both also unsure of what to say.

Finally, Izzie couldn't stand the silence any longer. "Why do we do this?" she asked, eyes narrowing at him intently.

Mark threw in one last "click" on his pen before looking up at her, a look of confusion plastered on his chiseled face. "What the hell are you talking about, Stevens?" he asked with a sigh, tossing his pen aside and crossing his arms across his chest.

She got up from the chair and climbed up onto the bed. She sat cross-legged, facing him. She put her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. "We talk, we connect, we have a moment, and then we go through this awkward 'morning after' kind of thing. What is up with that?" she asked him seriously.

He sat up and mimicked her posture, leaning towards her until their noses were mere inches apart. "I don't know. Why _do_ we do that?" he asked, gently mocking her.

She reached out and flicked him on the nose. "Don't make fun of me," she said, jokingly scolding him. "I'm being serious. It's how we operate. And don't tell me you haven't noticed."

He laughed, leaning back against the headboard. "We've been in here for three days. We haven't known each other long enough to have a routine," he told her straightforwardly.

She pursed her lips stubbornly. "Okay, while that may be true, you do have to admit that we've had our fair share of 'moments' in these past three days," she stated simply.

"This is true," Mark admitted.

"_And_ you do have to admit that after them, the atmosphere...how should I say this? Well, shifts," she said, looking him straight in the eyes.

He stroked in chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "Well, yes, I can see how that would be a dilemma," he said in a fake snooty accent.

Izzie was beginning to become frustrated with his lack of seriousness. "You know what? Forget it," she said, making a move to get off the bed. "I can totally just sit here in silence for 18 days."

He grabbed her arm, keeping her where she was. "You wouldn't last 18 minutes, Stevens," he said with a hint of laughter in his eyes.

She contemplated this for a moment. "Yeah, you're probably right," she admitted grudgingly, while at the same time her skin was tingling where he still had his grasp.

He raised his eyebrows. "Probably?" he asked cockily.

She ignored that comment. "What do you say we try to make it through the day without any more emotional breakdowns," she proposed. "From either of us," she added as an afterthought.

"What happens if we do?" he asked, grinning.

"I don't know. Didn't really think about that," Izzie said truthfully.

Mark's grin widened. "Check this out," he said, sliding off the bed and making his way over to the place on the floor where Izzie's care bag was lying and squatted down next to it.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"When you were in the bathroom this morning, I went through your bag," he told her unashamedly.

Izzie's jaw dropped, but before she could say anything, Mark went on. "I was curious," he said, shrugging. "Anyway, I found something interesting," he told her, reaching into the bag and digging around.

He finally found what he was looking for. "Ah-ha!" he announced, pulling something out of the bag. "Look what I found," he said with an evil grin, holding the object in the air so Izzie could see.

She let out a tiny gasp when she saw what he was holding. "Meredith!" she exclaimed jumping off of the bed. She made her way over to Mark and grabbed the bottle of tequila out of his hand. "She is unbelievable," she announced with a loud laugh.

"So, if we make it through the day with no emotional breakdowns, what do you say we crack open this baby?" he said with a wink.

Izzie smiled for a moment, mulling it over. "You're on!" she said with a grin.

She extended her hand. Mark took hers in his and they shook on it, wondering where the day's' events would take them.

Meanwhile, Meredith was in with a patient, making pleasant small-talk while waiting for the attending on the case to arrive. She turned around when she heard the door open, which revealed Derek standing there. She immediately felt blush rise in her cheeks. Things were still awkward between them since Addison had showed up and he went back to her.

"Good morning, Dr. Shepherd," she said with as much pleasantness and professionalism as possible.

She held the patient's chart out to him. "Dr. Grey," he said politely, nodding his head in greeting.

"Patient presents with seizures, but has no record of epilepsy," Meredith told him, presenting the case.

Derek, looked over the chart, nodding and murmuring to himself. "Meredith here is going to take you for an MRI, Mr. Lowe," Derek said, addressing the patient, looking up from the chart with a "trying to be optimistic" smile on his face. He handed the chart back to Meredith and exited the room.

"I'll be right back. I just have to order the test," Meredith told Mr. Lowe with a smile and exited right behind Derek.

She walked up to the nurses' station where Derek had already reached and had already grabbed another chart. Meredith came up beside him. She needed a order form for the test, and in order to get one, she had to reach across Derek.

"Excuse me," she said hastily, leaning across him in attempt to grab a paper. However, her arms appeared to be too short, and she couldn't quite reach, her fingertips barely brushing the edge of the paper.

Derek watched her struggle for a moment, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Eventually he reached for the paper and handed it to he. "Here," he said, giving her the "McDreamy" look.

She shot him a tense, brief smile, snatched the paper from his grip, and went to work filling it out.

He continued watching her. She, however, ignored him, but the blush in her cheeks showed that she knew his gaze was on her. He smiled wider when he saw her face turn red, but focused his attention back to his chart.

The two did paperwork in silence for a moment until Derek spoke up. "It doesn't look good for Mr. Lowe, he said, keeping his eyes on the paper.

Meredith slammed down her pen and whirled around so that she was facing him, her hand on her hip.

"We don't have to do this," she told him sharply.

He also put his pen down and faced her, but in a much calmer manner. He leaded casually against the desk, arms and ankles crossed. "Do what? Speak?"

"No, _this_," she said urgently, pointing from herself to Derek. "The thing. Awkward small talk," she said, dropping her voice down to a whisper, glancing at passerbys.

"Don't you think maybe you're over-reacting?" he asked, moving across the counter, closer to her.

"No," she stated very seriously.

Derek shifted his weight so he moved off from against the counter, and slid behind Meredith. He leaned in closer to her, his mouth close to her ear. "Maybe I want to do the thing," he whispered charmingly.

Meredith tensed up feeling his warm breath against her skin. She felt herself giving in, remembering what they use to have. She tilted her head back, turning her face toward his.

"Ahem!" came an extra loud throat clear from behind the pair. Derek immediately straightened up and he and Meredith spun around to find Addison standing there, her hip jutted out, and her hand resting on it. He eyed his wife, taking her in. She looked very angry. Her eyebrows were raised and her blue eyes were shooting out daggers.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked roughly, directed at Derek.


	14. Gone Tomorrow

_Izzie let out a tiny gasp when she saw what Mark was holding. "Meredith!" she exclaimed jumping off of the bed. She made her way over to him and grabbed the bottle of tequila out of his hand. "She is unbelievable," she announced with a loud laugh._

_"So, if we make it through the day with no emotional breakdowns, what do you say we crack open this baby?" he said with a wink._

_Izzie smiled for a moment, mulling it over. "You're on!" she said with a grin._

* * *

_"Ahem!" came an extra loud throat clear from behind the pair. Derek immediately straightened up and he and Meredith spun around to find Addison standing there, her hip jutted out, and her hand resting on it. He eyed his wife, taking her in. She looked very angry. Her eyebrows were raised and her blue eyes were shooting out daggers._

_"Can I talk to you?" she asked roughly, directed at Derek._

* * *

**Chapter 14: Gone Tomorrow**

Hours later, Izzie had turned the armchair at a slight angle toward the window leading to the outside. She and Mark may have only been locked in the room for three days, but to Izzie, it had already felt like an eternity.

She had her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped tightly around them. She immersed herself in the beauty of the outside world. The side of the hospital that they were on and a tremendous view of the harbor. As only happens about twice every year, the weather in Seattle was radiant. The bright sun reflected off the harbor and sent dancing beams of light through the room while the clouds looked as big and fluffy as a giant, stretched-out cotton ball.

She simply sat there, taking it all in. "If you weren't stuck in here right now, where you be?" she asked Mark, still staring out the window, a soft, dream-like element in her voice.

Mark, who had been channel-surfing, stopped abruptly when he heard her question. TV remote still poised in the air, he slowly turned his head toward her, looking at her like she was absolutely out of her mind.

His reaction went unnoticed by Izzie. She was still gazing out the window as if under some sort of hypnosis.

"Are you stealing happy pills from the hospital pharmacy again, Stevens?" he asked her, putting down the remote with both eyebrows raised and his faced scrunched up, wondering what exactly triggered the her to ask such a random question.

She swiveled her body around in the seat so she was now facing him. "I never thought about really. No one does, I suppose, because no ever thinks that one day it all can be taken away," she stated, looking at him expectantly for a response.

This, however, did not do anything to help the look of confusion on his face. "You're gonna have to give me a little more than that," he said with a slight laugh, now semi-intrigued with what she had to say.

She sighed, racking her brain for the right way to put her thoughts in coherent words. "You know, it's just..." she paused, blowing her blonde bangs out of her face, still searching for what she wanted to say. "It's just I never thought about what it would be like to suddenly be shut off from the outside world. About how much I would be missing. I've never taken the time to actually appreciate the beauty of nature, and now it's gone," she said thoughtfully.

Mark knew she was being serious, but yet he couldn't stop the small smirk that escaped from his lips. "You do realize we've been in here three days?" he asked her, amused. "And that we only have to stay for three weeks, not three million years. The outside world will be the same when we leave. It's not going anywhere," he stated slowly.

"Yeah, that's true? But what about in three million years? All the pollution and global warming, this planet could be-" she started rambling, voice suddenly rising with passion.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, Little Miss Greenpeace," he said cutting her off, holding his hands up in a "stop" signal. "You're starting to lose this."

Izzie's face broke out in an abashed smile. "Sorry," she said with a soft, short laugh. "I'm not really sure where that came from. I'm totally not a hard-core environmentalist. I mean, I love SUV's, I think life would be lesser without them. But I guess being quarantined really gives a person time to think," she said, shyly tucking a stray piece of hair that had fallen out of her messy bun behind her ear. "I guess it's really like they say. We never know what we have until it's gone,"

Mark felt his chest tighten and his pulse quicken with those all too familiar words. Izzie hadn't meant anything by the statement, but he couldn't help but think of them in different terms. They perfectly described him and Addison. Not that he really ever taken her for granted or anything, but there are things he could have done, words he never said, that may have kept her from leaving New York. And now, since she had gone back to Derek, he may never get to know how things could have gone if maybe, he had tried a little harder.

He spread a forced smile across his face before he responded. "Okay, this is getting a little too philosophical for my taste. Besides, emotional breakdowns equals no tequila," he said jokingly, not wanted for her to see how her simple words affected him.

It was Izzie's turn to be confused. "But philosophy has nothing too do with emotional breakdowns," she said, scratching her head, puzzled.

"Then you've never been to a Sloan family holiday," he said, his voice and expression deadpan.

Izzie let out a loud, short burst of laughter. However, her hand flew immediately to her mouth, realizing that he may have been serious. But when she saw the corners of his lips begin to curl up, signaling that he was, in fact, joking, she allowed the giggles to escape from her mouth as she laughed openly. Mark joined her, and their peals of laughter could be heard from down the hall.

Further down the hall from the laughing detainees, however, two other people were also shut in a empty room. The difference being, neither of them were smiling.

Derek had followed a stalking Addison down the hall, trying to ignore the stares and whispers from coworkers. She hadn't looked back at him once, just led him to an abandoned room. She flung open the door and stepped aside, allowing him to enter in front of her. Derek stepped cautiously into the room, wanting to make some sort of joke about murder, but wisely held his tongue because his wife looked so mad, that he wouldn't put it past her to actually do it.

Addison entered the room behind him, slamming the door. He knew he was in trouble, but when she locked the door and moved around the room, closing all the blinds, he thought about making the joke, so she would actually kill him. It would probably be less painful.

She stood facing him. She pushed her glasses on top of her head and ran both hands through her dark red hair. When she pulled them out, she held them up and out toward him, almost as if she was shrugging. "I am making an effort here, Derek," she said in an unusually calm voice, using her hands to emphasis the words.

Derek studied her, trying to uncover the meaning in her words. "Addison," he began, but was quickly silenced by his wife's finger pointing at him.

"Oh no. I'm not done. You don't get to talk yet," her voice and facial expressions telling him she meant business.

"I am making an effort here," she repeated slowly as she tried with all her might to keep her voice from shaking. "I am_ trying _to make this marriage work," she said, her blue eyes blazing, never leaving his.

Addison began walking toward him slowly and deliberately as he reacted, and began backing away as she continued. "You could at least have the common decency to do the same," she said, her anger increasing slightly as she poked him hard in the chest every few words, continuing moving forward until she had him backed into a wall.

He could sense that she was not through and silently allowed himself to be taken over as she went on. "But no," she said with an ironic laugh. "You just seem to not be able to get over that intern," she hissed through gritted teeth, sneering at him.

Derek finally reacted. "Now, that isn't fair," he said in defense, his voice trying to reason with her.

She stared at him, dumbfounded. "Every time I turn around, you're with her!" she exclaimed, her tone now in the category of a yell.

"We work together, Addison!" he said, raising his voice to match hers.

She could not believe he was trying to play that card. "Oh my, God, Derek, that is_ so _fucking irrelevant and you know it!" she exclaimed, turning around and walking away from him before she did something she would regret.

"Well, I can't exactly ignore her now, can I?" he asked, calling after her.

"No one's asking you too!" she retorted, whirling around, her eyes flashing with anger.

Derek was beginning to get truly angry. "Then what the fuck are you doing, Addie? Because that's kinda what it sounds like!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms out in frustration.

She stalked back over to him. "I'm not telling you to ignore her completely!" she asked, shoving him with both of her hands. "I'm telling you to stop acting like you two are a pair of love-struck teenagers!" she added, shoving him again, but because of his strong stature, his balance was unaffected.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, grabbing her by the wrists to keep her from repeating the same action again. "We don't-" he started in defense before he was once again silenced by his raging wife.

"Don't you dare tell me you don't!"she yelled as she jerked her hands out of his grasp. "I have eyes, Derek. I'm not blind!" she stated, looking at up him as if she was daring him to deny her accusations again.

"Addison-" he began, trying to calm down before things got completely out of hand.

She, however, did not follow suit. "God, I always knew you were a little slow, but this is ridiculous!" she said, turning around to walk away from him once again.

He quickly grabbed her by the arm to prevent her from going anywhere. "What are you talking about?" he asked, pulling on her arm so that she would whirl around and face him.

Suddenly, the anger left her face and was replaced by a sort of sadness. "It's like the only person who doesn't know you're in love with her, is you." she said softly, feeling tears begin to well up in her eyes.

Derek was taken aback by her abrupt change in demeanor. "I'm not-" he began quietly, dropping her arm.

"No, you are," she insisted as the tears began to fall. "I've done everything I could to try and deny it myself. But I've just been kidding myself this entire time. This whole 'trying to resolve us' thing? It was never going to work," she said as she walked over to a chair and sat in it, refusing to look at her husband. "And you know what's sad? Deep down, I probably knew that," she finished in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"Hey, don't say that-" he said, rushing over to Addison and squatting in front of her, trying to wipe the tears from her face.

She batted his hands away. "But I had to try," she said, wiping the tears away herself. "And you can't really blame me for that, Derek. You're a good guy. I know why she loves you so much," she said with the saddest, smallest, smile he had ever seen.

"Addison-" he began softly, even though he was unsure of what to say.

He was saved from having to think of words to say when she interrupted him. "I just need to know," she stated, hanging her head.

"What?"he asked, gently placing his fingers under her chin, forcing her to look at him.

Addison cupped Derek's cheek in her hand and looked at him with big, sorrowful eyes. "Tell me honestly. Would you rather be with her?" she asked him, her voice shaking with apprehension.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so I had totally planned on making this an Izzie/Mark drunken craziness chapter...but I was having issues writing it. So hopefully, I will gain some inspiration somewhere, and update soon with the chapter. You know what might help? Reviews! (hinthint). haha. Well, I hoped you guys liked the chapter anyway! Please let me know what you think!!! 


	15. Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off

**A/N: **Okay, so this chapter didn't quite come out like I had wanted. I initally intended for Mark and Izzie to have hilarious converstation over tequila, but I have discovered I'm really not that funny. So I tweaked it a little. Not sure if I'm completely happy with it, so I'd love to hear what you guys think! And like I've said before I may not get to update for about a week and a half b/c the place I'm staying at for Spring Break may or may not have internet access. But either way, I definitely WILL be writing. Okay, that's enough of a tangent. As always, thanks to those who have reviewed, your support means EVERYTHING to me, and ideas are always welcome. Thanks guys! (heart)

* * *

**Chapter 15: Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off**

Derek felt his heart breaking as he looked at his wife with silent tears in her eyes. However, he cold nothing but hang his head, and whisper, "I'm sorry,"

Addison slowly got up from the chair, and smoothed out her skirt with a deep breath. "Okay, okay," she repeated, nodding her head, almost as if she was trying to convince herself that everything was going to be just fine.

She put her hand on his shoulder and stood as beside him as he remained squatting. "Thank you for finally being honest with me- and with yourself," she said calmly, as she walked out the door, shutting it behind her.

Once she was safely out of the room, she leaded against the door, taking a few more long, deep breaths. She knew this day was coming eventually. Ever since she had shown up in Seattle, she had seen how he acted around Meredith. He never acted that way around her. But she knew someone who did. Hearing Derek basically admit his love for another woman, suddenly made her realize she could have had that kind of love with Mark. He'd do anything for her. The man drove 3000 miles to win her back.

Addison knew what she had to do. She had to tell him that she was crazy and beg for a second chance. She had to try and get her to forgive him, a concept not entirely foreign to her, she had been doing just that a lot recently.

Leaving Derek behind, both literally and figuratively, she spun on the heel of her Manolo-clad foot and took of down the hall, toward the quarantined room. She was about to round the corner closest to the room when she was intercepted by an nurse.

"Dr. Shepherd-" the young nurse hurriedly began.

"Dr. Montgomery," Addison corrected her.

The nurse looked confused. "I'm sorry, I thought-"

She cut her off. "It's Montgomery now," she told her with a tense smile. "What can I do for you?"

"The E.R.'s sending up a GWS to the chest. She's 7 months pregnant," the nurse told her.

"All right, thank you," she told her. The nurse turned and went back down the hall.

Addison inwardly sighed. Mark would have to wait. Right now, reality was calling and she had to answer.

Inside the quarantine room, after Bailey came and retrieved their dinner trays and the first notes of the _American Idol _theme song were beginning to play, Izzie caught Mark glancing at her bag out of the corner of his eye.

She smiled to herself. "You really want to open that, don't you?" she asked him with a smirk.

"Are you kidding? If I'm not at work, I'm at the bar. And since I haven't done either in the recent past, I think I'm starting to go through withdrawal," he said, immediately shutting of the TV and turning to her excitedly.

She rolled her eyes, laughing. "What are you? An alcoholic? Like you've been saying, it's only been _three_ days," she said, teasing him.

"An alcoholic, workoholic, and, oh yeah, a sexoholic," he rattled off, counting them on his fingers. "But then again, I haven't been getting a whole lot of that lately either," he said, eyeing her smugly. "But you know, Stevens, you could help me out with two of the three," he said, that same old grin plastered across his face.

"Oh, so you think you're clever, don't you?" she asked him flirtatiously, getting up from the chair and making her way over to the bag which had been set on the opposite side of the room. "Well, fine," she said with a tempting tone of voice as she opened the bottle. "No tequila for you," she said with a triumphant smile as she held the bottle to her lips and leaned her head back, pounding back a gulp.

Perhaps she took a bit too much because her face scrunched up and she coughed a few times, the burning aftertaste lingering in her throat.

Mark laughed when he caught a glimpse of the tears in her eyes. "Lightweight, Stevens?" he asked her, amused.

She hit her chest with her fist a couple of times, dislodging a few last coughs, before answering. "Maybe a little bit," she answered, her eyes screwed shut, holding her thumb and index finger close together to indicate exactly just how much.

His eyebrows raised in amusement, but he did not comment. He got up from the bed and began shutting the blinds, so people walking by would not witness their illicit activity. He wasn't sure, but if he had to guess, he'd say getting drunk in a hospital room would be frowned upon.

After he finished his task, he joined Izzie in the middle of the room. He grabbed her by the arm and plopped down on the floor, taking her with him. "When drinking excessively, it is already better to be on the floor than risk falling off some higher piece of furniture_ on to_ the floor," he stated like he was reading a definition right of a textbook.

She just gave him a "look." "Trust me, I'd know," he said, pretending to be deadly serious.

"Well, since we are on the floor, thus being fully prepared, let's do this!" Izzie proclaimed excitedly, taking another huge swig of tequila.

Mark's face shone with approval. He grabbed the bottle out of her hand, saluted her with it before helping himself to a throwback.

A couple of hours later, only about a fourth of the bottle remained. Izzie, who had started feeling tipsy after about four shots, now fit into the category of "drunk." Mark, who had probably drank more than her, was only experiencing a slight buzz. Mark had moved backed to the bed while Izzie remained on the floor next to the bed, her arms draped across the bed, and subsequently, his legs. Her head was resting on her arms.

Suddenly, her head shot up, her unfocused eyes gleaming. "Let's do something!" she announced gleefully as she began trying to get herself up off the floor.

Mark saw the next event coming before it could occur. "Wait, don't-" he called, his eyes growing wide as he made a move to grab her arm.

But it was too late. She stood up way too fast. She began swaying dangerously hard. He jumped up from the bed and caught her in his arms just as she was about to fall over. He had his arms under her armpits, as slowly moved both himself and Izzie to the floor.

"Easy there, Stevens," he said, leaning her back against the bed, beside him.

Izzie, however, apparently had about a two second attention span when drunk and had already forgotten about the near incident. "Let's do something!" she said again, sliding her butt across the slick floor so that the two were sitting facing each other.

He had to laugh. "Okay, you win. What do you want to do?" he asked her, interested in what she had in mind.

She stared at him, eyebrows knitted together looking at him as scrupulously as she possibly could while drunk. After a moment, her face relaxed and lit up. "Oh, I know! Let's sing Disney songs!" she squealed, looking at him with an expression of pure excitement.

Mark let out a loud laugh. "I don't do Disney," he said, looking at her like she was absolutely nuts.

Izzie's lower lip jutted out as she gave him the puppy-dog face. "Pwease? Just one song?" she asked in a ridiculous baby-voice.

He rolled his eyes at the tone of pathetic-ness in her voice. He could either humor her, or he could listen to her whine about it. So he chose the former option, because, after all, he _was _a bit tipsy. "Which song?" he asked with sarcastic weariness, rolling his eyes once again.

"Oh, yay!" she squealed, leaning forward and wrapping him in a huge hug.

He shrugged her off. Feeling her touch was warranting an unwelcome reaction inside of him, an urge, especially since earlier, she had stripped down to a tank top and shorts. As hot and as drunk as she was, normally, Mark would have been all over it. But he knew he had to restrain himself and his desires because being locked up with a drunken hookup for three weeks has the potential for awkwardness.

"Let's sing Aladdin!" Izzie exclaimed, oblivious to everything that was going on in his head. "When I grow up, I totally want be Princess Jasmine, she told him, giggling uncontrollably.

"I don't know Aladdin," he said, shaking his head fervently.

"Of course you do! Everybody knows Aladdin!" she said, hitting him on the shoulder.

She got on her knees, and reached across the floor for the abandoned bottle of tequila, giving Mark a nice view of her ass, as well as the thong sticking out from underneath her shorts. "Here, loosen up, man," she said, moving back into her sitting position, trying to hand him the bottle.

"No, I don't want anymore," he told her, pushing it away. There was no telling what he might try if he had more alcohol in his system. Right now, he was in control and it was better for the both of them if it stayed that way.

Hearing that, she crawled into his lap. "You know you want it," she said in a sing-song voice, waving th open bottle underneath his nose.

"You have no idea," he muttered, his eyes cast down at her ample chest, just inches from his face.

"What was that?" she asked, her words slurring.

He moved his eyes quickly back to hers. "Nothing," he told her.

Izzie accepted that explanation and continued on her quest to get him to drink. "Come on, we can't waste this. And I'm pretty sure I've had enough," she said, drunkenly giggling.

"You know what? Fuck it." he said to himself, giving in. He took the bottle from her hand and proceeded to down the rest of it in one gulp.

She clapped excitedly to show her pleasure. "That's the spirit!"

Mark growled, the aftertaste of the alcohol hitting him. "Now let's sing that song," he said, deciding he may as well loosen up.

Izzie grabbed his face in both hands, and looked at them, their faces so close together, he could feel the warmth of her breath hitting his face. "Nah, I don't want to do that anymore," she said simply, releasing her grip on his face.

Well, what do you want to do then?" he asked her.

"Let's play Never Have I Ever!" she said with a wicked grin in her eyes.

"We already drank all the alcohol," he reminded her with a laugh.

She pouted for about a millisecond, but then a huge smile came across her face once again. "Truth or Dare!" she declared, wiggling her eyebrows.

He hesitated for a moment, and in that split second, she changed her mind again. She leaned in close to him. "I wanna dance," she said, softly giggling into his ear.

She pulled away, still giggling, waiting for a response. He pulled her close to him, and whispered in her ear. "There's no music," he told her.

"Don't underestimate the power of Meredith," she said, sliding off him and crawling back over to the back, where she triumphantly produced an iPod, complete with speakers.

"I should have known," Mark said, laughing.

She hooked up the iPod, although with a little bit of difficulty since she was swaying. She set it on shuffle, and walked slowly back over to him. "Grind On Me" by Pretty Ricky came across the speakers. She held out her hand to Mark, and he willingly took it as he got up and went with her to the middle of the room.

Izzie slung her right arm around his neck and let the other fall freely at her side. She stuck her right leg in between his legs, and her left leg and on the other side of his right. She pulled out her hair-tie and shook her head, her blonde hair falling in soft waves across her shoulders. She smile seductively at him and began to move her body with the music, her head resting right up against his chest.

_Baby grind on me  
Relax your mind take your time on me  
Let me get deeper shorty ride on me  
Now come and sex me till your body gets weak  
With slow grindin'_

It was when Izzie's left hand began exploring Mark's body that he really began to lose control of his senses. They were both getting lost in the music. He soon began reciprocating her actions, allowing himself to put his hands on, feeling the silky, smoothness of her skin under his fingertips.

When Izzie felt him giving into her touch, and felt his strong arms pull her closer, she could think of nothing she wanted more at that moment than to feels his soft lips on hers.

_Step One: You're kissin' on me  
Step Two: Girl, I'm caressin' your body  
Step Three: Now I'm lickin' off the whipped cream  
Step Four: And oooh you're grindin' on me_

She stared into his eyes, willing Mark to make a move. The desire in her eyes did not go unnoticed by him. The only problem was two different parts of his anatomy were pulling him in two different directions. One part of him knew that it would be wrong of him to take advantage of her, she was drunk after all. But the other part of him...well, we all know what was going on there. She ran her fingers through his hair and softly whispered his name into his. He took her face in his hands and he leaned down closer to her. Closer and closer until his lips were lingering just above hers.

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**Disclaimer:** I do not own "Grind on Me." I know all you guys would have been able to figure that out, but I suppose I have to say it anyway. 


	16. I May Hate Myself in the Morning

**A/N:** Okay, so I am making the most of a crappy day in FL to run to the library and update Virus for you guys! And the place I am staying at most definitely does not have internet, this probably will be it until at least Monday. Hope you guys enjoy! And thanks to those who have reviewed. They make me feel special! haha!

**Warning:** This story is rated "T" for a reason. Although it is not too bad in this chapter, I fully intend to make full use of the "T" rating in future chapters. Enjoy!

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_She stared into his eyes, willing Mark to make a move. The desire in her eyes did not go unnoticed by him. The only problem was two different parts of his anatomy were pulling him in two different directions. One part of him knew that it would be wrong of him to take advantage of her, she was drunk after all. But the other part of him...well, we all know what was going on there. She ran her fingers through his hair and softly whispered his name into his. He took her face in his hands and he leaned down closer to her. Closer and closer until his lips were lingering just above hers._

_

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**Chapter 16: I May Hate Myself in the Morning**

Izzie closed her eyes and lifted her chin up, waiting to meet him. She could sense him moving closer and closer. Just as she felt his lips lightly brush against hers, she whispered breathlessly, "Wait," keeping her eyes closed.

Mark's eyes flew open, and his head jerked back, surprised by her sudden request. He didn't say a word and waited for her to continue.

A moment of apprehension had came over Izzie. She wanted desperately to give herself completely to Mark, but there was a tiny voice in the back of her head, reminding her of Denny. She knew she shouldn't be wanting someone else so soon after her fiancé's death, but the alcohol flowing through her system quickly silenced any doubt.

She opened her eyes and caught him staring at her intently. "Nothing. It's nothing," she breathed, smiling, as her hands found the back of his head, pulling him down to her.

Their lips collided together, meeting in a fury of passion and want. Both had doubts playing at the back of their minds, but both allowed their desires to overtake them.

Lips and hands were flying uninhibited, each person exploring every inch of the other's body. When Mark felt Izzie tugging at the bottom of his T-shirt, he broke apart from her long enough to allow her to pull it over his head. She tossed it off to the side, discarding the unwanted item, and went back to work.

He grabbed her head forcefully between both his hands, reuniting their lips. She ran her hands up and down his stomach, feeling his rock-hard abs underneath her fingertips while his fingers entangled themselves in her blonde hair.

Breathing rapidly, Izzie stepped away from Mark. Eyes never leaving his, she pulled off her own shirt, exposing her lacy, pink bra to him, driving him absolutely wild.

He snaked his arms around her back, and pulled her to him, their bodies slamming together. Their lips clashed together, connecting with even more hunger than before.

Never breaking apart, Mark slowly led her to the hospital bed. He leaned her gently down backwards on it, allowing himself to climb on top after her.

He started toward the bottom, kissing her exposed flesh dangerously near the waistline of her shorts. He worked his way upward, leaving trails of kisses on her stomach, chest, and neck until he finally returned to her lips.

Before leaning down to once again taste her mouth, Mark allowed himself to look into Izzie's eyes. Gone was the desire he had seen only moments before. It now seemed to be replaced by fear. Looking into her eyes sent a wave of reality washing over him. What was he thinking? They couldn't do this, now matter how much he wanted to in that moment.

During the time he was leaving his mark all over her body, Izzie felt an unexplainable feeling of nervousness come over her. And she knew he had sensed it in her too because of the abrupt ceasing of his touch.

It took everything he had to pull himself off of her. "I'll be right back," he told her softly and awkwardly as he slid off the bed and made his way to the bathroom, slamming the door loudly behind him.

Izzie sighed in frustration, and rolled over to her side, burying herself underneath the sheets. By the time Mark came out of the bathroom, the after effects of all that tequila had overpowered her, as he came back to find her passed out with a steady stream of heavy breathing emitting from the blonde. He gathered her discarded tank top off the floor and put it back on her as gently as her could. He retrieved his own shirt as well and settled into the armchair, falling into a fitful sleep, plagued by thoughts of the awkward conversation that would be sure to follow the next day.

The next morning, Izzie awoke a sharp, shooting pain in her head. Groaning, she eased herself into a sitting position, grimacing from the immense pain. Gently rubbing her head, she tried to remember the previous night's events that had caused her to awake in such an unfortunate condition.

She could remember taking shots with Mark, but after that, her mind was blank. But glancing around the room, her eyes settled on the empty tequila bottle, and she immediately knew that the night had to have been interesting. She only wished she could remember it.

Easing herself off the bed, she padded across the room to use the bathroom. It wasn't until she had pushed the door open that she noticed the sound of the shower running. Peaking in anyway, she caught sight of Mark's naked body partially visible through the frosted shower door. Unable to tear her eyes off of him, she silently cursed herself for allowing indecent thoughts to pop into her head. But she did have to admit that he did seem to live up to his "McSteamy" moniker. The man was definitely banging.

Without warning, the water shut off. Fearing she'd be busted, Izzie quickly turned on her heel and tried to quickly make her way back to the bed without being spotted. Perhaps she was a bit overzealous because, she ended up tripping over the care bag, which had been proving itself to have been more trouble than it was worth, and she landed on the hard floor with a thud.

The noise prompted Mark to fly out of the bathroom, dripping wet, with only a towel wrapped around the lower half of his body. "Stevens, what's going on out-" he began to ask, with concern in his voice. But once he saw Izzie sprawled on the floor, tangled in the bag, a smirk appeared on his face. He tried to suppress his laughter, but was unsuccessful.

"Well, I'm glad _you_ find this amusing," Izzie grumbled, rubbing her leg.

"I'm sorry," he managed to get out through his laughter. "but you have to admit, this is funny."

"It's not funny," she said, her pride hurt more than anything else.

He stopped laughing, but looked at her with a gleam in his eyes and a smirk on his face. "It's a little funny," he said as he offered his hand to help her up.

Izzie grudging took it, allowing him to pull her up. She rubbed her head, not take her eyes off his so she would not become entranced by his hard, glistening body.

"Headache?" he asked her, seriously, with genuine concern. He still had her hand in his.

"You could say that," she said, slipping her hand out of his grasp and going over to sit in the chair.

Mark disappeared back into the bathroom and reemerged wearing only his scrub bottoms. Walking over to the bed, he rubbed a towel over his hair, attempting to dry it.

He sat down on the bed facing Izzie. "What exactly happened last night?" she asked him with her eyes closed, her head back against the chair.

His eyes widened. "You don't remember?" he asked, unsure if she was just trying to mess with him. After all, that was something he would do.

She lifted her head and looked him in the eyes, genuine confusion shining from them. "No, why? Did something happen that I should remember?" she asked him, a slight panic in her voice.

Mark wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or offended that she didn't remember the previous night's events. On the one hand it was a good thing, he would be spared the awkwardness. But on the other hand, he'd like to think that he was a least a tiny bit memorable. But then again, there was still a small doubt playing at the back of the mind that she was just testing him, trying to see if he would admit to what happened.

He decided he would be the one to test her. "Nothing happened. We drank the tequila and then watched T.V.," he said, keeping a stoic face. "But did you know that you find the news hysterical when you are drunk?" he asked her.

"I do?" she asked, her eyes growing wide, telling him that she believed him and was not, in fact, testing him.

"Yeah. You laughed through the entire segment on the death of a family in Kentucky," he told her, lying straight through his teeth. Now that he knew she definitely didn't know what happened, it was better to provide good details in his lie, so there was no way she could accuse him of lying.

Her face turned red, and she hung her head. "I always did laugh at funerals," she mumbled quickly.

She looked up again to find Mark staring at her, eyebrows raised. "Long story," she said, shaking it off.

"Whatever you say," he said smirking, shaking his head.

Thankfully, Izzie was spared having to explain herself when there was a knocking at the door. She and Mark turned around to find Meredith, holding breakfast trays.

"I'm going to finish cleaning up," Mark said to Izzie, getting up and returning to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

Izzie went to the door, opening it slightly so she could retrieve the trays from her friend. No sooner had she brought the trays over to the table, she heard Meredith hiss.

"Izzie Stevens!" she admonished in a loud whisper, causing her to hurry back over to the door.

"What?" she asked, confused as to what might have brought about the shock in Meredith's voice.

Meredith look at her, her hands on her hips. "You have sex beard," she told her pointedly.

"I what?!" Izzie asked. She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"Sex beard," she repeated. "Your face is all rough and red. Like it was caused by a guy's beard," she said, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

"You're being ridiculous," she told her friend, laughing at her insane accusations.

"Remember, I know when you're lying," Meredith said, disbelief evident in her voice. "Uh oh, McSteamy's back," she said, noticing the bathroom door opening. "But you better believe I _will _be back for details later, missy,"

"Wait, I-" Izzie tried to call after Meredith, very confused about what just happened. But it was too late, her friend had already taken off down the hall.

She turned back slowly, thinking as hard as she could. Fuzzy bits and pieces of last night's events were trying to find their way to the front of her memory. Reaching up, she felt the roughness of her cheek underneath her fingertips. Meredith had not been lying to her. But clearly, someone else had been.

"What the hell happened last night?" she demanded angrily at Mark, who froze dead in his tracks at the sound of her voice, knowing he was not going to escape this conversation as he had previously thought.


	17. Just Watch the Fireworks

**A/N:** Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of update. But I am back from Spring Break with a new chapter. Thanks to all those who have reviewed so far, and a big shout-out to **McLoving Grey's **for her review because I honestly had no idea where I wanted to go with this chapter when I ended the last one, so I took her brilliant suggestion and althought I twisted it a little, she was my inspiration. Thanks! Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. I could see it all unfolding in my head, but I'm not sure if I was able to get it across in words. Please let me know what you think!

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_"What the hell happened last night?" she demanded angrily at Mark, who froze dead in his tracks at the sound of her voice, knowing from her tone of voice that he was not going to escape this conversation as he had previously thought._

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**Chapter 17: Just Watch the Fireworks**

Mark racked his brain, trying to come up with something, anything to say to Izzie. "I told you already," he said, his voice cracking in a nervous laugh. "We got drunk and watched TV," he told her, but even as he said it, he outwardly cringed and inwardly groaned. God, that sounded pathetic.

"Care to explain this?" she asked, pointing to her face, her tone angry, yet steady.

His eyebrows knitted in confusion. He genuinely couldn't figure out what the hell she was talking about. That was not what he would have expected to come out of her mouth next. Then, however, he noticed her face seemed to be a little red. Instantly, he recognized what happened.Mark had seen it before. Izzie was the latest victim of his scruffy beard, and in all actuality, she was probably the worst, after all, he hadn't groomed it in a few days.

Izzie sighed in frustration, then stalked over to where Mark stood. She grabbed him by the hand and entered the bathroom, dragging him behind her. When they were both safely inside, she slammed the door shut with what he thought was amazing force. He would have been amused if the situation had been different. The young intern may have had tiny arms, but she was certainly stronger than she looked.

She stood in front of the mirror with him behind her, both looking intently at the reflection bouncing back at them. Izzie, because she was amazed how red her face really did look, and Mark, because he was studying her, almost as if he was trying to read her thoughts.

After a minute, Izzie quickly turned to him. "My face is all rough and red," she said, her eyes clashing with his angrily.

Mark reached up his hand, going to feel for himself. Izzie's heart pounded. She watched it out of the corner of her eye, coming toward her. Just as it was about to lay against her cheek, she swatted it away with her own hand.

"Forget it, you're not going to charm your way out of this one," she said, poking him forcefully in the chest with her index finger.

He sighed heavily and leaned against the sink, his arms and ankles crossed. "Look, I'm not even really sure what you're talking about," he said reasonably, determined to play up the "innocent" angle as long as he possibly could. "So I can't be trying to charm my way out of it, can I?" he asked.

His plan certainly didn't last very long. She ignored his question, but instead, asked one of her own. "Did we have sex last night?" she pointedly asked, but her eyes focusing on the sink, the mirror, the lights, anything but his face, a faint blush rising in her cheeks.

The way Mark saw it, he had two options. One, he could tell her the truth. It was fairly obvious she now knew _something_ happened between them the night before. Two, he could continue denying it, after all there was no way she could be _positive_.

He went with option number one. It always had been in his nature to be brutally honest.

"No," he began to explain before he was cut off by Izzie.

She let out a long breath she wasn't aware she was holding and tilted her head back, her hair cascading down her shoulders. "Thank God," she breathed with a loud laugh of relief.

Mark felt his chest tighten slightly when he saw the look of relief on her face. He was oddly offended, a feeling he wasn't exactly sure why he was experiencing. "Should I be insulted?" he asked, cocking his head to the side to study her.

Izzie's mouth dropped slightly. She quickly closed it, narrowing her eyes at him, trying to decide if he was joking. "Are you?" she asked cautiously.

When she received no reply, Izzie began to get nervous. Mark just stood there, looking at her, his standard unemotional expression written across his face, making it impossible for her to decipher. She honestly hadn't meant to offend him. It was just...oh God, if she had hooked up with Mark Sloan...well, she didn't really want to think about it.

But, still, before she could stop herself, she found herself doing something she would have never imagined herself doing. She defended McSteamy.

"Oh my, God. You should definitely not be insulted," she rattled with a short laugh, very flustered. "I mean, seriously...you're _gorgeous_!" she slipped out without even thinking. However, once she did, she immediately wished she hadn't.

An expression crossed Mark's face that Izzie could definitely read: Smug cockiness. The corners of his lips turned up into his signature smirk and his eyebrows arched.

Izzie panicked. "Oh, God!" she exclaimed, her face bright red with embarrassment. "Wait! That's not what I meant-"

Mark let out a less-than-elegant snort of disbelief. "Yeah, okay," he muttered under his breath.

"Well, I mean, you're not unfortunate looking," Izzie said, her face now turning even brighter. "Like, you're an attractive guy. You've got, you know...good genes," she rambled, trying to save a little bit of face.

He just laughed while Izzie's hands flew to cover her face and she slid down the bathroom door into a sitting fetal position. "Oh, God," she muttered, leaning her head against the tiled walls, staring up at the bright lights on the ceiling.

"You know, I believe your exact words were 'The man's a hottie.'" Mark said, not thinking of the consequences that were sure to come from that statement. He was still relaxing comfortable against the sink.

Izzie's head slowly sank downward, until she was making eye contact with Mark. "What did you just say?" she asked slowly, all embarrassment she had been feeling just moments ago now replaced by growing anger.

Well, he was definitely caught and he knew it. There was no way he could weasel his way out of this one. Shit, how could he be so goddamn careless. He was usually better than that.

His silence told Izzie everything she needed to know. "You _heard_ that?" she asked through gritted teeth, trying to remain relatively calm.

Mark ran a hand through his hair. "I, uh...well..." he stalled. Damn! What was _with_ him today?

She clambered to her feet. "I thought you were asleep!" she accused loudly, getting up in his face.

"Well I _was_!" Mark said defensively, staring her down. "Until, you know... I wasn't."

"How much did you hear?' she yelled questioningly.

He tried to shrug her off "Does it really mat-" he began to ask, his tone bored.

"How much?!" Izzie yelled, shoving him in the shoulders with both her hands in frustration.

Mark stared down at her for a moment. "All of it," he said in a stern whisper, almost as if he was proud of himself, taunting her to see what she would do next.

She glared at him, hard. Mark could literally see her jaw muscles clenching. "You fucking-" she yelled, her voice now classified as a "screech."

Mark suddenly reached behind the shower curtain and turned the water on. "What the hell are you doing?" Izzie exclaimed, officially very annoyed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

He turned back to the fuming blonde. "Your voice is too goddamn loud. You really want the entire hospital to hear this conversation?" he asked calmly.

She was utterly amazed. Leave it to Mark Sloan to be practical while being yelled at by a very angry female. But that wasn't going to stop her from chewing him out. "Oh no," she said with a short, ironic laugh. "This is not going to be a conversation. This is going to be me yelling at you because you're an ass."

Mark grabbed her by the shoulders and lowered his head, so he was facing her at eye level. "Lower your voice, would you?" he requested forcefully.

At this point, the part that frustrated Izzie the most was Mark's calm demeanor. Doesn't the man have any reactions at all?

"Don't tell me to lower my voice. I will keep it as loud as I goddamn choose." she informed him loudly and stubbornly, shrugging his hands off of her.

Mark sighed, crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "You know, if you had lowered your voice in the first place-" he started arrogantly.

"Don't even go there!" she cut him off, outraged he would even insinuate such an outrageous accusation.

Now he was beginning to get a little bit irritated. This chick had balls of steel and she thought she could do no wrong, a dangerous combination in Mark's eyes. "Go where exactly?" he asked sarcastically, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Do _not _twist this around so it's my fault!" she shot out through gritted teeth and flashing eyes, poking him hard in the chest for emphasis.

"Well I'm just saying, if that voice of yours wasn't so loud you wouldn't have to worry about me overhearing your conversations," he told her outright.

Izzie's jaw dropped hearing his tenacity. "You arrogant, little son of-" she drawing out slowly, pausing in between each word.

Mark was pretty sure everyone who was standing within 100 yards of that room could hear Izzie's every word, even above the rushing water of the shower. "Just fucking calm down, okay?" he barked. Normally, he liked being the topic of water-cooler gossip, but it usually didn't have to do with him being reprimanded by a freaking intern.

Needless to say, Izzie didn't listen to his request."Calm down? _Calm down_?!" she exclaimed, her voice now even louder than before. "You're actually telling me to calm down right now? That conversation was private! You had no right to-" she yelled, shoving him every so often, slamming him against the wall.

It was time for Mark to put an end to this. "I would have figured it out eventually, you know," he told her, his face twisted into a sneer and his voice oozing with pompousness.

She threw her hands on her hips. "I seriously doubt that," she said severely.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" he asked with a evil smirk. "Because it became pretty obvious last night."

Her brown eyes were at war with his blue ones, both glaring harshly. "What?" she asked in a hard whisper.

Mark shrugged sarcastically. "Unless, you know, you go around molesting every guy you meet with your lips," he said lazily, casually rolling his eyes up to look at the ceiling.

Izzie's glare intensified, but she didn't have a response for him. "Oh yeah. That's right. There was some action last night," he clarified, looking back down at the seething intern.

She was taken aback for a moment. "But you said-" she began. She couldn't believe it, she _wouldn't_ believe it.

He waggled his finger right in front of her face, giving her the "no, no" gesture with a cocky smile on his face. "I said we didn't have sex, but you never let me finished the rest of that sentence," he whispered suggestively.

Instinctively, Izzie's hand flew up, striking Mark in the face. "You're a jerk," she hissed, shooting him a death glare.

He cracked his jaw, stretching out his aching cheek muscle. Her slap had hurt like hell, but he was too damn proud to show it. "You didn't think so last night," he said coolly, trying to see just how far he could push Izzie.

Izzie curled her fists into tiny balls at her side trying to resist the urge to punch him right where it would count. "I was drunk and you took advantage!" she cried in disbelief.

He laughed. Izzie couldn't believe he would actually have the audacity to laugh at that moment."Au contraire, Blondie," he said, that same cocky grin spread on his face. "_You _initiated everything. Including the removal of our shirts," he informed her proudly.

"You're lying," she replied, shaking her head unbelievingly.

He put his hand on her shoulder in a demeaning way. "Stevens, come on," he said smugly. "If I was going to lie, I'd have told you we fucked the hell out of each other," he told her, winking sardonically.

Izzie was far to upset to come up with a coherent response. Not that it mattered, because Mark continued. "Want to know what I think?" he asked. Again, she didn't respond. She even allowed his hand to keep weighing heavily on her shoulder. So again, he just continued. "Well that's too bad because I'm going to tell you anyway. I think you remember everything that happened last night. You're just scared," he evaluated confidently.

This idea was so ridiculous that she had to respond. "Scared?" she asked with a short laugh. "What the hell would I be scared of?" she whispered, shaking her head, her voice drowning in biting sarcasm.

"This," was all Mark said before aggressively connecting his lips to her with a hard kiss.

It was short, but when he pulled away, he found Izzie holding her breath. With a determined pout on her face, she reached up, threw his hand off her shoulder and then slapping him again with that same hand in the same spot.

He was unaffected. "You're scared of wanting someone," he said blatantly, on a roll now. He chose to ignore the shooting pain running through his face and continue. "But let me break this down for you," he said, bringing himself close to her face. "We're going to be in here for another 17 days. Who's to say we can't have a little fun while we're stuck?" he said, looking her up and down with a suggestive smirk.

Izzie was disgusted by the feel of his warmth breath on her face. Her hand flew up once again, but this time, Mark was ready for it. He grabbed her by the wrist. Not be be deterred, Izzie attempted to strike him with her other hand. However, he caught that one too. Now in control, he whirled her around so she was the one now pinned against the wall. Holding her wrists in place, Mark had total dominance over Izzie. He pressed his body against hers so that there was no way she could move. That's how they remained for a moment, their eyes locked in staring contest. But then suddenly, Mark bent down, flattening his lips on hers forcefully. Powerless, Izzie had no choice but to let him. Instinctively she closed her eyes, but she wouldn't allow herself to reciprocate the kiss. When he was through, he released her. He stepped back away from her, but stayed silent. Izzie continued her previous action of glaring at him, the only difference was that she was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling with each breath. Neither one said a word. Izzie moved toward him carefully. She grabbed him by the hem of his scrub bottoms and forced him backwards until he was pressed against a wall, just as she had been minutes before. The situation was now reversed, as passion overcame the intern, and she attacked him with her lips. He grabbed her head, trying to push her even closer. Their kiss deepened, as if each person was trying to devour the other whole. Mark moved away from the wall, but stayed in the kiss. They were slamming around the bathroom recklessly, running into the sink, toilet, and the walls. Eventually, they fell into the shower that was still running. They tumbled into it, pulling the shower curtain down with them. They were crumbled into a jumble on the floor with the curtain tangled up around them. However, neither Izzie nor Mark seemed to notice. They were becoming quickly soaked from the warm, cascading water falling all around them, their clothes clinging to them, but there, in a heap on the shower floor, they remained.


	18. Caught Up in the Moment

**A/N: **Hey guys! I know I keep saying it but, thanks for the reveiws! They really mean a lot to me. This chapter is a little bit on the shorter side, but I'm using it to sort of to propel a bunch of new events into motion soon. Please let me know what you think. Thanks again!

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_Their kiss deepened, as if each person was trying to devour the other whole. Mark moved away from the wall, but stayed in the kiss. They were slamming around the bathroom recklessly, running into the sink, toilet, and the walls. Eventually, they fell into the shower that was still running. They tumbled into it, pulling the shower curtain down with them. They were crumbled into a jumble on the floor with the curtain tangled up around them. However, neither Izzie nor Mark seemed to notice. They were becoming quickly soaked from the warm, cascading water falling all around them, their clothes clinging to them, but there, in a heap on the shower floor, they remained._

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**Chapter 18: Caught Up in the Moment**

Eventually, the floor of the shower became a little too cramped for Mark and Izzie, the limited area hindering their abilities to throughly explore each other to their satisfaction. Mark pulled himself off Izzie, extending his hand to help her up. She grabbed it and he pulled her up with such force that she slammed against him, causing him to fall against the wall of the shower.

Water was pouring down on them but actually getting out of the shower was not a thought that crossed either of their minds. There was no masking their obvious desires for each other seeing as the warm water caused their clothes to cling tightly to them, and soon the thin material of Mark's scrub bottoms and Izzie's white tank top left little to the imagination.

Her hand brushed across his pants, feeling his hardness beneath them. This caused a guttural groan to emit from the attending. He pulled his lips from hers and began kissing her neck. She put one hand on his chest, feeling his water-slick muscles beneath her fingertips, and arched her neck, giving him easier access. Her other hand began attempting to untie his scrub bottoms.

"Are you sure?" he whispered huskily into her ear while continuing to feed on her neck. He sure as hell wanted to, but he wasn't going to force her to do anything. He wasn't that big of an ass.

Her only response was taking both her hands, grabbing his face, and bringing his lips back to hers passionately.

But Mark still wasn't convinced. He pulled away and looked right into her eyes. "Because you know, I don't want you to-" he began seriously.

Izzie pushed her matted hair out of her face. "Just stop talking," she whispered breathlessly, pulling him back down, recapturing his lips.

He pulled away once more. "Well, if you insist," he said with a smirk.

He grabbed the bottom of her tank top and lifted it over her head. Not to be out-done, she wiggled her way out of her shorts and kicked them across the room. Standing there in only her bra and panties, Izzie gave him a suggestive smile, and crooked her finger, motioning for him to get over there.

Mark wasted no time obeying her wishes. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, feeling every inch of her slick, smooth skin underneath his fingertips. His fingers brushed the clasp of her bra. With one skilled flick of the wrist, he rid her of the pesky object.

Meanwhile, George was wandering the halls, going about the daily intern duties. However, he couldn't get one thing off his mind. Ever since he heard the rumors of Izzie and Mark he just couldn't wrap his head around it. That guy was an ass; Izzie hated him. She had vowed her allegiance against him when George told her about Mark's tryst with Callie. Besides, he_ knew_ Izzie. Cocky, arrogant, self-absorbed surgeons weren't her type.

George thought about that for a moment, after all, she had hooked up with Alex, so maybe he was wrong in that evaluation. But still, he just wouldn't believe the whole Izzie/Mark thing until he heard it from Izzie herself.

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure Bailey wasn't watching, he grabbed a surgical mask, threw it on and pushed opened the door to the quarantined room.

"Hello?" he asked quietly, entering the room. He saw the blankets all bunched up on the hospital bed, so he assumed one of them was still sleeping. Hearing the shower running, he decided to go and check to see if it was Izzie. If it was, it would probably be the best time to talk to her.

Pushing the bathroom door open slightly, he peeked his head in. He saw a pair of Izzie's shorts thrown near the sink, so he knew if had to be her in the showing.

George figured Izzie had walked in on him in the shower enough times that she wouldn't mind if he interrupted her just this once.

Fully opening the door, he couldn't believe his eyes. The shower curtain was lying on the floor, and there was Izzie and Mark, in plain view, all over each other.

"Oh my,God!" George exclaimed, screwing his eyes shut, trying to block out what he just witnessed. "I, uh...I'm...sor-...I'll just come back later," he stammered, completely embarrassed. He tried to turned back out the door but instead slammed into the wall because he eyes were still shut.

At the sound of George's voice, Izzie's eyes shot opened and she pulled himself from Mark. George finally managed his way out the door, mumbling incoherently as he left.

"Shit!" Izzie exclaimed loudly. She quickly threw the shower curtain around herself and hurried to catch her friend before he left, leaving Mark behind.

"George!" she exclaimed, stumbling over the length of the curtain. "George, wait!" she cried, catching up to him and stopping him by putting her hand on his shoulder.

He turned around to face her. "I guess the rumors were true," he said softly, his voice mixed with both embarrassment and disappointment.

Izzie's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What are you talking about George?" she asked hesitantly.

George's face flush red when he realized his slip-up. "Uhh... nothing. It's nothing," he stuttered, turning around to try to leave. "Never-mind."

Izzie grabbed his hand that was on the door knob, forcing him to turn around. "What rumors, George?" she asked harshly.

"I have to go check on a patient," he mumbled, yanking his arm out from her grip and quickly slipping out the door.

"I'm so going to _kill_ Meredith," Izzie said angrily to herself.

George exited the room so quickly that he ran smack into Alex. "Dude, O'Malley. What's your deal?" he questioned as George slammed off of him, hitting the wall.

He didn't receive an answer. George just stumbled down the hall, shaken up from the collision, muttering to himself. The only words Alex caught were "Izzie," 'unbelievable" and "fucking McSteamy."

Curiosity getting the better of him, Alex tried to peer into the room, but his efforts were useless because the blinds were still drawn and therefore couldn't see anything.

Shrugging, he let it go, and continued on his way.

Back in the room, Izzie returned to the bathroom to find Mark still standing in the shower. "Where were we?" he asked, flashing his infamous grin.

The moment had kind of been ruined for Izzie, but nevertheless she dropped the curtain and stepped back into the shower, allowing him to take her in his arms.

The feel of his strong hands all over her body quickly got her back into the mood. "You know what?" she asked softly.

"What?" Mark asked, muttering into her neck.

"Let's move this to the bed," she said in a raspy voice. She stepped away from him and left the shower. She held her hand out for him. He willingly took it and she led him out of the bathroom and back into the main room.

Izzie sat on the edge of the bed, staring up at Mark, willing him to make his move. Without any further prompting, he swung her legs over the side, laid her down gently, and lowered himself on top of her.


	19. Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me

**A/N: **Hey guys! I hope you all are still out there, enjoying the story. Thanks to the continued reviewers, as well as the new ones. I get really excited when I see a name I don't recognize. And of course, I love all you regulars. Anyway, enough about that. Here's the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy and I would love to hear any thoughts you may have as to what you would like to see happen. After all, Izzie and Mark are have only been quarantined for about 4 days? What am I going to do for the next 17? haha! Ideas are welcome!

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_Izzie sat on the edge of the bed, staring up at Mark, willing him to make his move. Without any further prompting, he swung her legs over the side, laid her down gently, and lowered himself on top of her._

* * *

**Chapter 19: Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me**

Mark collapsed on top of Izzie, panting. He laid his head down on her chest, catching his breath, his head rising and falling with every one of her rapid breaths. Sweat clung to their bodies, almost glueing them together.

When his breathing returned to normal, Mark pulled out of Izzie and reached over the side of the bed, grabbing his boxers. He slipped them on and slid off the bed. Izzie propped herself up on her elbows, watching him.

Halfway across the room, he turned back to look at her with a smirk. "Funny. It's only 10 and I'm about to take my third shower today."

He turned around and entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Izzie flopped back down on the bed, her blonde hair spilling across the pillows. She let out a long, deliberate sigh, reflecting on the events that just unfolded.

She just had sex with Mark Sloan. Izzie groaned and ran her hands over face thinking about that statement. Did she really just have sex with McSteamy? Yeah, yeah she did. Not that it was bad. Quite the opposite in fact. It was angry and passionate and frantic, in a word: hot. She was sure that's what she wanted in that moment. But now, now that it was over, doubts began to plague her mind. What the hell was she thinking? No good could _possibly_ come from this. All she did was cater to Mark's own ridiculous notion that he was God's gift to women. And now she'd have to hear about it for the next 17 days. So much for trying to get him to let her in past his cocky demeanor. She could just see it now: now that she had sex with him, it was going to be all sexual innuendos and suggestive glances. God! He was SO irritating! He was nothing more than a overconfident, self-absorbed asshole. He listened to her private conversation with Meredith for chrissakes! That was so like him. Gather bits of incriminating information which he could use for his own perverse pleasure later.

Izzie buried herself under the covers. She_ knew_ that she shouldn't have done it, and yet she did anyway. And now, she regretted it.

Oh! And George! She couldn't believe he had walked in on them! George was the hospital's biggest gossip. She could only only imagine the repercussions when everyone found out. True, she just had some of the hottest sex of her life, but would it be worth the consequences? She doubted it and just wished she had thought of that before she had let her emotions come over her.

Mark rested one hand on the shower wall, putting all his weight on it. His head was down under the shower jet and streams of cascading water were falling all around his face.

He just stood there, eyes closed, as he let his thoughts flow freely.

It wasn't like he had made love to Izzie Stevens. No, not even close. He had fucked the hell out of her. And God, did it feel good. It had been days since he last had sex and he released all that pent-up energy on the intern. It was purely physical, nothing more. He was just looking for a good fuck. Hell, it was inevitable that it would happen. Two good-looking people trapped in a room for three weeks? It was only a matter of time. But then again, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty. He honestly hadn't meant to upset her earlier, and there was no way he could have known what that anger was going to lead to.

Mark chuckled softly at the idea. That was bullshit. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew which buttons to push and the reactions he would receive when he pushed them. He just wanted to have a little fun, but it wasn't like he would have forced her to do anything she didn't want to do. But clearly, she was just as sexually deprived as he had been. Now that had potential...

He shut off the shower and stepped out, drying himself off. He swiped his scrubs off the floor and gave them a quick sniff. Damn. He was going to have to get some fresh ones relatively soon. But since he currently had no other options, he pulled them on and went back into the room. There he found Izzie fully dressed, pulling the sheets off the bed.

"What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

Izzie whipped her head around to look at him. "What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked, her tone indifferent. "I'm sure as hell not sleeping in crusty sheets tonight."

"So you're going to sleep on the moldy mattress?" he asked, eyebrows raising in amusement.

"Don't be ridiculous," she stated, balling the sheets up and tossing them by the door. "I'll just ask someone for a fresh pair."

Mark tried to gauge the expression in her voice. It wasn't embarrassment or anger, he was sure of that. He thought she just sounded annoyed.

"What are you going to tell them?" he asked, taking a seat in the armchair, knowing she was going to crack eventually. The only question was when.

Izzie clenched her jaw. She couldn't believe he was being so casual about the situation. But still, she wasn't going to give into him. She was going to stay strong.

"That I spilled my breakfast on the sheets this morning."

He scoffed. "You going to tell them what you ate?" he asked with a wicked grin.

Her stomach churned when she recognized the meaning behind his words. But she could not let him know that he affected her. "Yeah. Umm... pancakes, eggs, and oh yea...a mini sausage." she said, flashing him a sarcastic smile.

Mark gave her an approving nod. "Touché, Stevens. But you know, that sounds better than what I ate."

That did it. Izzie strode over to the armchair sat right down on top of him, legs straddling his lap, facing him. She grabbed his face in her hands. "Look, we had sex. I get that. And as great as it was-"

His eyebrows shot up and he opened his mouth to speak. However, she silenced him by covering her hand over his mouth. "Shut up. You know you're good so we're dropping that now," she said sternly.

Mark held his hands up, letting her know it was dropped. She took her hand from his mouth and continued. "Like I was saying, as good as it was, it was a mistake."

He grabbed her by the ass and stood up. He turned around and deposited her on the chair while he stood in front of her. "Why?" he asked simply.

She was taken aback. "What do you mean 'why?'" she asked, jumping up so they were standing face to face.

"We are two, warm-blooded, consenting adults. We have needs," he said, laying it all out there. "It's just sex. What could be better than hot, casual, no strings attached sex? We are going to be in here for another 17 days."

Izzie pondered this information for a moment. "Besides, you're not going to be able to stay away anyway," he told her, running his hand across her cheek seductively.

She rolled her eyes and let out a loud laugh. "You're mighty sure of yourself."

"What can I say?" he said, smirking. "I know I'm good at what I do."

Hmm. That was true. Shaking that thought out of her head, she smiled sweetly at Mark. "The concept is a good one. But what makes you so sure you won't fall in love with me?" she said, joking, tossing her hair and looking at him through batted eyelashes.

Mark laughed. "Now why on earth would I do a thing like that?"

Izzie leaned in close to his ear."I'm good at what I do too," she whispered suggestively. "You just didn't give me chance to show you."

Meanwhile, George was just going through his daily motions, the scene he had walked in on playing over and over in his head like an episode of _The Real World_ on MTV.

"George!" he heard his girlfriend call. He didn't want to talk to her right now. After all, she had fallen under Sloan's spell too. He losing everyone he cared about to the man.

He hurried around the corner, pretending he didn't hear her. When he was out of her field of view, he ducked into the nearest supply closet, just in case she decided to follow him.

"George?" a surprised voice asked.

George jumped in surprise, knocking into the shelves causing some bedpans to clatter to the floor loudly.

"Shh!" he hushed, trying to silence the offending bedpans.

"George?" the voice questioned again.

He turned around and found Meredith standing there with her arms crossed, eyeing him curiously.

"Meredith!" he whispered loudly. "What are you doing here?"

She looked at him like he was nuts. "I needed a suture kit," she said, holding it up, offering proof. "What's your excuse?"

He pressed his ear to the door, listening, as he waved his hand at her, trying to get her to quiet down. "I'm hiding from Callie."

"Not up for a quickie at work?" she asked, a hint of amusement radiating in her voice.

"No," he answered. "But apparently Izzie is."

Meredith shot him a look. "George," she said sternly.

"I saw her with my own eyes," he told her.

Her eyes widened, realizing he was not joking. "Izzie and McSteamy?!" she exclaimed.

George threw his hand over her mouth in panic. "Lower your voice,"

And of course, someone just happened to be walking by the supply closet just in time to hear Meredith's outburst. Curiously, Alex pressed his ear to the door and listened in on the hushed conversation.

"You _saw_ them?" Meredith whispered in disbelief.

George ran his hands through his hair. "I wanted to talk to Izzie and I found them in the shower. _Together,_" he explained. "And they were...you know," he said urgently, making hand gestures.

She couldn't believe it. "You're kidding!"

"Meredith, why would I make something like that up?" he asked sarcastically.

"Seriously?"she asked, looking at George with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Meredith!" he exclaimed in exasperation.

"Right, sorry," she shaking, shaking off her "look." "But are you _sure_?"

George sighed. "There is no mistaking what I saw. Trust me."

Outside the closet, Alex back away quietly, making sure George and Meredith didn't hear him out there.

Izzie and Sloan? He couldn't believe that. Only recently, she had shot him down, claiming that she wasn't over the whole Denny thing. There was no way she would be shacking up with Sloan. And besides, who was his source? O'Malley? That guy was worse with gossip than the girls. Yeah, there was no way Alex could trust George. He was just going to have to go see for himself.


	20. Somewhere a Clock is Ticking

**A/N:** Okay, first of all, I apologize for the severe lack of update. I normally try to do it every few days or so, but for some reason, I wasn't feeling inspired. Maybe it's been the lack of new Grey's eppys, I don't know. haha. Anyway, I hope you guys haven't given up on me. I really am going to try to update quicker. Also, I've decided I want to add chapter titles, but since it is now currently 2 in the morning and I have to up at 7 for class, the only one I have so far is or this chapter. But I will put up the others as soon as I think of them. I'm going to try to be all Grey's-like and use song titles. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks again for the reviews. They really mean a lot. And now, for chapter 20!

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_Izzie and Sloan? Alex couldn't believe that. Only recently, she had shot him down, claiming that she wasn't over the whole Denny thing. There was no way she would be shacking up with Sloan. And besides, who was his source? O'Malley? That guy was worse with gossip than the girls. Yeah, there was no way Alex could trust George. He was just going to have to go see for himself._

* * *

**Chapter 20: Somewhere a Clock is Ticking**

Alex scurried off before either George or Meredith could catch him outside the supply closet. Glancing at his watch, he noticed that he had exactly 5 minutes and 24 seconds before he had to meet Addison in the O.R. for a prenatal surgery. That meant he had exactly 5 minutes and 24 seconds to get to the bottom of the whole "Izzie and McSteamy" situation.

Alex scoffed out-loud at that thought. "Izzie and McSteamy situation?" The idea was laughable. There was no situation, just some ridiculous gossip that was being spread by some whiney guy who was probably just bored with his own pathetic, nerdy sex life. There was only room for one cocky arrogant surgeon in Izzie's life, and that was Alex. He was sure of it. Okay, maybe not that sure. After all, there was been that whole Denny sidetrack. But that had been Alex's own fault. He had been an ass so Izzie had gone running to the first guy she saw. Whatever. Temporary setback. Now that Denny was out of the picture, Alex just knew he was totally back in the game. He could tell she totally wanted him. And not that he would ever, ever, admit it...but he wanted her too.

Alex reached the quarantined room and took another glance at his watch 4 minutes and 13 seconds. Plenty of time to put a stop to George's juvenile gossip.

He rapped his knuckles on the door and rather than waiting for someone to answer, he strode right in, grabbing a surgical mask as he entered.

"Alex!" Izzie exclaimed, surprised by his sudden appearance. She laid the magazine she was flipping through on the bed, and placed a hand over her heart. "You scared the hell out of me."

He walked over to her and placed his hand over hers. A smug grin spread quickly across his face. "I always knew I made your heart race."

Izzie shot him a "look." "And just what do you think you're doing? Barging in here like that? I could have been changing or something," she said, inexplicably flustered, as she wriggled her way out of Alex's touch.

"So?" he asked, plopping himself down on the bed beside Izzie.

"I could have been naked," she explained to him like it should have been obvious.

Alex stared at her for a moment. "Is that supposed to keep me away?" he asked seriously.

Izzie opened her mouth to retort, but Alex cut her off. "Besides, it's not like anything I haven't seen before," he said, looking her up and down suggestively.

She crossed her arms across her chest, subconsciously shielding herself from his gaze. "What are you doing here, Alex?" she asked, trying to change the subject to something a little less awkward.

Alex had come to the room on a mission, but he wasn't quite ready to let her know that yet. "Where's Sloan?" he asked, glancing around the room in what he thought was a casual way.

Apparently it wasn't casual enough. "Right. You're here not to see Sloan," she said, looking at him suspiciously.

He turned up the "innocent mode." "What? I can't say 'Hi' to my mentor?" he asked, avoiding her eyes.

Izzie let out a less than lady-like snort which was accompanied by a roll of the eyes. "Please. Like anyone could ever considered him a mentor," not believing him for a second.

"I do," Alex insisted.

"You planning on working at Starbucks after your internship," she asked him sarcastically.

He sighed in defeat. "Yeah, okay. Good point," he admitted. "But seriously. Where is he?"

"Shower," she answered, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. "But really. Why do you care?" she asked.

Alex suddenly looked Izzie straight in the eyes. She was taken aback by the seriousness she could see in them. "I just wanted to know if it was true," he said blatantly.

This did nothing to clear up Izzie's confusion. "If what was true?"she asked roughly.

"You know," he said, urging her with his eyes. "The rumors," he said, his voice almost in a whisper.

She threw her head back with an frustrated sigh. "What did Meredith tell you? Or was it George?" she asked, bringing her head back up to look at him wearily.

It was Alex's turn to look confused. "You know what he's saying?"

"I don't know," she answered hesitantly. Maybe they actually weren't talking about the same thing. "What did you hear?" she asked carefully.

Alex studied her for a moment before answering. "That you're doing the McNasty with McSteamy."

Izzie shook her head. "Do people honestly have nothing better to talk about?" she wondered out-loud.

"Wait," he said, carefully drawing the word out. "Are you saying it's true?"

"Does it honestly matter, Alex?" she asked him, frustrated.

"To me it does," he said quietly, looking down at his feet as he talked.

She tried to get him to look at her. "Why?" she asked.

He looked back at her. She tried to read the expression in his eyes, but couldn't. "Izzie, you know," he told her, his voice suddenly harsh.

Izzie's eyes fluttered in surprise at the abrupt change of tone. "If I knew, would I be asking you?" she asked honestly.

It took all he had not to strangle her. Was she honestly that oblivious? "Come on, don't make me say it."

"Say what, Alex?" she pressed, really unsure of what was going on.

"Yeah. Say what, Karev? Enlighten us."

Both Izzie and Alex turned their heads toward the direction of the new voice that had entered the conversation. They found Mark leaning causally against the door frame that led to the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around him.

Alex, flustered by Mark's entrance, tried to nonchalantly look at his watch. 1 minute and 43 seconds. "Oh shit. I gotta go scrub in on a surgery," he said hurried, springing up from the bed and dashing out the door without so much as another word.

Izzie watched him go, but then turned her attention back to Mark. "That was strange," she observed.

Mark, however, knew exactly what had just happened. "So I take it we are the subject of hospital conversation already," he said easily, moving from the doorway to sit beside Izzie. "It's been what? Like an hour?" he pondered. "You people work fast."

She was still lost. "What are you talking about?"

He, like Alex, couldn't believe she wasn't catching on. "You interns really don't know anything do you?" he asked her, shaking his head.

"Hey-" Izzie began, offended by his remark.

He cut her off. "I mean, it's much more obvious could he get?" he asked rhetorically. "He heard about our little tryst and he's in denial about it because, and I don't know how many times I have to say this until it penetrates your skull, he's in love with you." he told her, straight out.

Mark's statement warranted a short laugh from the intern. "Alex Karev is not in love with me," she said confidently.

Mark rolled his eyes, wondering just how many times he was going to have to explain this to her. "Stevens, I have had him following me around for the past couple of weeks. Do you not think I wouldn't notice the way he looks at you?"

Izzie though about this for a moment. "Really?" she asked, her nose scrunching up in thought.

"I've only said it about a hundred times," he retorted sarcastically.

Izzie thought about Mark's words. Was Alex really in love with her? She knew that he used to be, but she had no idea that he still was. But then again, he had been acting fairy strange around her-

A sarcastic laugh interrupted her thought process. "Wait a second. Don't tell me you actually feel something for that guy." Mark said in disbelief.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why are you jealous?" she asked slowly, a smug grin starting to grow on her face.

"Oh right. Don't flatter yourself, Stevens," Mark replied, shaking his head once again.

"Please," she scoffed confidently. "I'm hott."

Her statement earned a laugh from him. "No argument there."

Izzie's jaw dropped in mock-surprise. "Oh my, God. We actually agree on something," she joked.

"Cocky much?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mark's raised eyebrow was met by Izzie raising on of her own. "Really?" she said with a laugh. "Pot, meet Kettle," she said with sweet sarcasm.

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. Point taken."

"Thank you very much," Izzie said, confident that she had won the fake argument. "But anyway, what the hell are we going to do to pass the time today?" she said, deciding to change the subject.

Mark tilted his head in thought for a moment, but then looked back at her with an evil grin across his face.

Izzie rolled her eyes. "Besides _that_."

His eyes gleamed. "Good to know what your head's at, because I actually wasn't going to suggest that."

Izzie snorted again. "For once," she muttered under her breath.

Mark shot her a suspicious smile. "But I do have a great idea."

Alex raced thorough the hospital, trying to get to the O.R. He had 13 seconds left. And while his legs ran, his mind was also racing. He knew he had to do something to end this whole Izzie-Sloan thing before it got out of hand. She was his. They were Izzie and Alex, the whole "Ross and Rachel" of Seattle Grace. They belonged together.

Alex flew into the scrub room and was met by Addison, impatiently looking at her watch. "You're late Karev."

"I had four seconds, Dr. Montgomery." he told her.

Addison rolled her eyes and entered the O.R., leaving Alex to scrub in. And there, in that room as he was washing his hands, an idea came to him. He knew exactly what he had to do to nip the Izzie and Sloan thing right in the bud once and for all. Before it was too late.


	21. Unopened Letter to the World

**A/N:** Okay, I know I promised a quick update, but school has been absolutely nuts lately. Thank God it's over in exactly ONE WEEK! yayy!! Then it'll be summer and I'll have plenty of time to write! Anyway, I want to thank the reviewers. Once again, I can't say how excited I get when I check my e-mail and I have a story review. You guys are great! I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

**Diclaimer:** I own nothing.

_

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"But anyway, what the hell are we going to do to pass the time today?" Izzie asked._

_Mark shot her a suspicious smile. "I have a great idea."_

* * *

_Addison rolled her eyes and entered the O.R., leaving Alex to scrub in. And there, in that room as he was washing his hands, an idea came to him. He knew exactly what he had to do to nip the Izzie and Sloan thing right in the bud once and for all._

* * *

**Chapter 21: Unopened Letter to the World**

Izzie folded her arms and studied Mark intently. "I don't like that look," she decided, eyeing him suspiciously.

Mark dropped the smile on his face to look at her with mock-awe. "What look?" he asked, trying his best to sound innocent as he ducked back into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Do not play dumb with me, Sloan," Izzie called. "Just exactly what is this 'great idea' you have for us?"

She did not receive a reply. Mark flung open the door to the bathroom, re-emerging in his rapidly deteriorating scrubs. He strode over to the door and opened the venetian blinds, reconnecting them with the outside world.

Spotting Nikki, a nurse, he turned to Izzie. "Hold that thought," he told her.

Just as she was about to pass by the room, Mark rapped on the window. The young nurse, startled, dropped the files she was holding. She quickly gathered them up and faced Mark, her face red with embarrassment.

"Hey. How are you doing this lovely morning?" Mark asked her with a sweet smile from the other side of the door, turning on his flirtation mode.

"Just fine, Dr. Sloan. How are you?" Nikki replied, shyly tucking a stray piece of dark chestnut hair behind her ear, seemingly intimidated by the good-looking surgeon.

"Please. It's Mark," he insisted, opening the door to usher her in. "And I'm doing even better now that you're here," he said, his icy blue eyes gleaming at her. All the while, Izzie just stood back and watched their interaction in amusement.

Nikki blushed furiously. "Oh, stop that," she said, playing hitting him on the shoulder with a flirtatious giggle.

"Well it's true," Mark said, reaching out and tucking the pesky piece of hair back for her. Damn. He was really on his "A" game that day. "I need you to do me a favor," he asked, fully knowing the pretty brunette was officially putty in his hands.

He was correct in his assumption. "Anything for you," she replied bashfully. Izzie could practically see her knees wobbling from across the room.

"That's what I like to hear,"Mark said, flashing that damn "McSteamy" smirk. "Now, listen," he said, motioning for her to come closer with his finger.

Nikki inched closer until their scrubs were brushing together. Mark leaned down and whispered in her ear. At first, her face flushed even redder at his proximity to her, but as she listened intently, nodding every so often, and then her eyes grew wide and a grin appeared on her face.

Soon, he pulled away from her ear. "Got that?" he asked, holding her by the shoulders and looking her dead in the eye, making sure she got his message.

Nikki, still under Mark's grasp, turned to glance at Izzie, a laughing smile on her face. "Be right back," she said, still looking at Izzie, a knowing look in her eyes.

He released the nurse from his grip. "You're the best!"he told her, guiding her back to the door, his hand grazing the small of her back.

She had to fumble with the door handle for a few seconds before she was finally composed enough to leave, shooting an embarrassed smile at Mark before taking off down the hall.

Mark turned around to find Izzie rolling her eyes. "I think I just vomited in my mouth a little," she said, sounding disgusted.

He turned the grin on to her. "It's not my fault I'm irresistible."

Izzie resisted the urge to once again roll her eyes, and instead held out two fingers."I have two questions," she told him. "One, you are absolutely incorrigible, and two, what the_ hell_ are you planning?" she asked, her voice almost bordering on frustration.

Mark's eyebrows knitted together as he studied her. "That first one wasn't a question," he informed her.

She couldn't hold back her eye roll any longer. "Ugh, whatever."

"Well, you said you had _two _questions," he said logically, shrugging his shoulders as he settled on the bed.

Izzie let out a exasperated sigh. "Okay, fine. One statement and one question," she said knowing he was not going to let this one go.

"Thank you," he said smugly, as she moved over to the bed and sat down next to him.

"Great, now that that's over with, let's try this again," she said sarcastically. "What the hell did you tell that nurse?" she asked, looking him dead in the eyes.

"Why?" he asked as he rested his hand on her knee. "You nervous, Stevens?" he asked with a smirk.

"No! I just-" she began in protest.

"What about now?" Mark asked, cutting her off and placing his hand midway up her thigh.

Izzie shook her head at the abrupt change in subject. "You're insane,"she told him with an incredulous laugh.

He chose to ignore her comment. "Now?" he asked, his hand migrating further north up her leg.

In truth, her heart was beginning to pound, but on the outside, she kept her demeanor calm. "You're seriously playing the nervous game right now? What are you, five?" she joked, trying to mask the fluster in her voice.

"We've been through this before. I'm six," he said, his expression stoic. "How about now?" he asked again, his hand lingering dangerously far up her thigh.

Izzie looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You're an ass"

"Please," he said, scoffing cockily. "You love it."

She did, but she shot him a glare anyway. Mark, deciding to be bold, kept that one hand where it was and placed the other behind her head, pulling her in for a hard kiss. Izzie was surprised at first, but she quickly recovered and reciprocated his actions. However, they were soon interrupted by a knocking at the door. Pulling apart, they found Nikki standing outside.

Mark turned to Izzie with a sly grin on his face. "Looks like our fun has arrived, Stevens," he said with a wink.

Meanwhile, Alex was just going through the motions in the O.R. His previous emotion of pure shock about his discovery of Izzie and Sloan was quickly becoming replaced by anger. She had totally dismissed his earlier confession of his feelings toward her, claiming that it was 'too soon' after Denny, but there she was, not all that long after, sexing up Sloan. That guy was all wrong for her. He didn't know her like Alex did. He didn't know that she baked obsessively when she was upset about something or that her nickname was "Cricket" because she always fell asleep to the sound of crickets outside her trailer when she was younger. And Alex sure as hell knew that Sloan didn't know that Izzie Stevens had three kinds of smiles. There was one where she was smiling at someone out of politeness, but in reality, she really thought they were nuts. And then there was her sarcastic smile and finally, the one she wore when something really made her laugh. That one could light up an entire room. Thinking about this, Alex mentally cursed himself, shuddering because all of a sudden he was thinking like he was in some cheesy chick-flick.

"Something on your mind, Karev?" Addison suddenly asked from across the operating table, pulling Alex out of his thoughts.

"Dr. Montgomery?" he asked, unable to hide the fact that he clearly wasn't all that focused on what was going on around him.

"You seem a little out of it over there. Everything all right?" the attending asked, genuine concern in her voice. She, after all, could relate. She was going through a rough patch. Derek and Meredith were officially together, and she still hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Mark.

Alex scoffed."Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't it be?" he asked, trying to sound confident.

Addison peered at him over the frames of her glasses. "Karev, you're lying," she stated, looking back down to the patient on the table before them.

"I'm not-" he tried to insist.

"You don't seem like yourself," she told him blatantly, keeping her gaze to the table.

Alex's eyebrows furrowed together just below his scrub cap. He wasn't sure why Addison was so insistent in getting him to talk. "What do you mean?" he asked, curious to find out what she was thinking.

Addison could tell something was wrong because he was acting the exact same way she was:distant and distracted. "You're not complaining about being on 'The Vagina Squad' today," she said, trying to make a joke. She didn't want him to know that she could relate with him. She didn't want any questions from the nosy intern.

"Just thinking. That's all," he said, shrugging her comment off.

"Hmm. Is that a new development for you?" Addison asked, continuing to mask her awkwardness with jokes.

"It's not the only new development around here," Alex muttered under his breath, his mind still on Izzie and Sloan.

Addison glanced up from the patient to look at him. "What's that?" she asked, unsure if she had heard him clearly.

"Nothing, Dr. Montgomery. It's nothing," he said, waving her off.

Addison knew the tone in his voice all too well. He didn't want to talk. "Well, okay then. Hand me a clamp," she said, dropping the subject.

Back in the quarantined room, Mark went over to the door and opened it a crack, allowing Nikki to slip something in. Izzie couldn't tell what it was, Mark's body was blocking it from her view."Thanks, Nikki," he said, quickly shutting the door.

"Not a problem, Dr. Sloan," Nikki said with a smile. "Enjoy."

Mark turned away from the door and faced Izzie, allowing her to see what the nurse had brought.

"Oh, my God. You are unbelievable," she said with a disbelieving laugh when she recognized what he was holding.

He laughed. "Told you I was six," he said with a satisfied grin.

"You're serious?" Izzie asked, her eyebrows raising.

Mark walked back over to the bed and sat back down. "As serious as the Ebola virus," he joked.

She shot him a "look." "You're not funny."

"I beg to differ," he said with a smirk. Izzie didn't reply, but her "look" intensified. "Well, do you want to do this or not?" he asked with a loud sigh.

Izzie shook her head incredulously."I can't believe I'm going to do this."

"You better believe it, Stevens," Mark said, grinning, as he opened the box. "It's about to go down."

After the surgery, Alex retreated to the locker room. He dialed his combination and flung it open, ignoring the random, various items that fell out at his feet. He dug through the messy locker, flinging things over his shoulder as he searched for something.

"Dude, watch it," George said, coming into the locker room only to be bombarded by a flying apple core.

Alex whipped around and glared at George with fire in his eyes. "You!" he said viciously, pointing at George, "Don't talk!" he commanded before continuing his search.

"What's up his ass?" Meredith asked George, as she came into the locker room just in time to witness Alex's outburst.

George pondered that question for a moment. "Maybe-" he began.

"Dude! Seriously!" Alex shouted, turning back around to face his two coworkers. George immediately closed his mouth. Satisfied, Alex turned back to his locker, throwing some old scrubs over his shoulder.

"What's wrong with him?" Cristina asked, entering the locker room.

This time, Alex whirled around before George even got the chance to open his mouth. "Don't!" he commanded harshly, pointing straight at him. George holds his hands up in defeat and didn't say anything and Meredith nor Cristina didn't dare to speak up either.

Once again, Alex turned back to his locker and proceeded to toss a few more things out of his way. Finally, he found what he was looking for. He grabbed it and brushed past his three coworkers, leaving his locker the way it was.

Once he was gone, both Meredith and Cristina looked at George questioningly. "Hey, don't look at me!" he exclaimed, just as confused as the others.

"Ha! Queen Frostine! In your face!" Izzie exclaimed gleefully. As Alex was chewing out George, she and Mark were making full use of what Nikki had brought them. Candyland.

Mark glared at her, eyes squinting. "You_ so_ cheated!" he decided as she happily moved her playing piece all the way near the finish.

"Jealous!" Izzie said, maturely sticking her tongue out at him.

"You must have rigged the cards," he decided. "How else would you explain landing the Queen Frostine while I've been stuck here on this damn yellow dot space forever?" he asked, voice bordering a whine, as he pointed to his playing piece which was stuck back near the beginning.

"Aww, someone's being a sore loser," Izzie said in a baby voice, coolly mocking him.

Mark sent a sarcastic sneer her way, but didn't say anything more. Instead, he drew a card from the pile. "Finally!" he said, truly exited that the card he drew was a yellow square, thereby allowing him to move again.

"That's good. I was getting tired of kicking your ass," she joked, flashing him her sarcastic smile.

It was Mark's turn to shoot her a "look." She ignored him and took her turn, drawing a card. "Gloppy!?" she moaned loudly. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Ouch. Tough luck, Stevens," he said in mock-sympathy while laughing while she moved her piece all the way back to almost the beginning.

Izzie looked at him suspiciously. "_You _fixed the cards, didn't you?!" she accused.

Mark's hand flew to his heart. "You're calling me a cheater?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, if the shoe fits..." she said snarkily, folding her arms across her chest.

He laughed incredulously. "Now who's being a sore loser?"

Mark had called Izzie out and she knew it. "Shut up and pick a card," she said begrudgingly, with a small pout on her face.

Meanwhile, Alex stood at the nurses station, writing on a big manila envelope with a permanent marker. Glancing up, he saw Nikki coming down the hallway. Just as she was about to pass him, Alex grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.

Nikki looked at him in confusion. "Hey, can you do me a favor?" he asked.

She let out a small laugh. "That seems to be the theme of the day," she narrated out loud.

"Excuse me?" Alex asked, as he now looked at her in confusion.

"Oh, you know, it just seems today's the day that hot doctors ask me to do favors," she explained, trying to clarify.

Alex's eyebrows shot up. Nikki, realizing what she just said, turned red and tried to shake it off. "Never mind. What can I do for you, Dr. Karev?" she asked.

He handed her the envelope. "I need you to give this to Mark Sloan. Don't tell him who it's from. Just slip it under the door or something," he instructed specifically.

"Umm, okay," she answered skeptically, but not asking any questions.

"Thanks," Alex said, patting her on the back. "Really appreciate it," he told her before heading off down the hall in the opposite direction.

Nikki watched him go for a moment, but then turned around and started for the quarantined room.

Back and that room, Izzie and Mark's intense game of Candyland was nearing the end. "A purple card and I win, Stevens," Mark informed Izzie smugly, knowing full well that she was aware of that fact and also knowing that she wasn't the least happy about it.

Izzie, indeed was fuming. She couldn't believe she was getting this worked up about a game usually played by kids who couldn't even read yet. But still, it seemed to her that she was moving backward more often than she was moving forward, and it was damn frustrating. "Pick up the stupid card," she said, refusing to look at him.

Mark picked a card up from the pile slyly, holding it to himself so Izzie couldn't see. When he didn't say anything, she looked up at him and found him grinning at her wickedly.

"Oh, don't even say it," she whined.

He didn't say it. He simply laid it down so she could see. It was purple. Izzie's jaw dropped. "You little sh-"

Her comment was interrupted by a knock on the door. They both turned to look but they didn't see anyone standing there. Instead, they saw a big, manila envelope slide under the door. Izzie looked at Mark curiously. He shrugged, not knowing anything about it. She slid off the bed and grabbed the envelope. She then tried to look out the door to see who had delivered it, but there was no one in sight.

Izzie turned her attention back to the envelope, studying it curiously. "It says 'Sloan'," she told Mark, going over to hand it to him.

With a confused look plastered across his face, he opened it and peered inside.

"What is it?" Izzie asked him expectantly.


	22. Two Points for Honesty

**A/N:** Hey everyone! School's officially over! YAYY!!! Now, hopefully, I can get out chapters quicker. That is, if I don't get stuck pulling double shifts at my job, which happens too often for my liking. Anyway, thanks once again to my loyal reviewers. I can't even begin you say how much I love you guys! I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations! Admittedly, it's not that exciting, but you will get the answer to the question, "What exactly is in that damn envelope?"

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__Izzie turned her attention back to the envelope, studying it curiously. "It says 'Sloan'," she told Mark, going over to hand it to him._

_With a confused look plastered across his face, he opened it and peered inside._

_"What is it?" Izzie asked him expectantly._

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**Chapter 22: Two Points for Honesty**

Mark's face crinkled into one of disgust. "I don't know. You tell me," he said to Izzie, pulling out the offensive object and holding it between two fingers, away from his body, as if he was absolutely repulsed by it.

It was a magazine. Izzie's head tilted to the side as she tried to get a better look at it while it was dangling between Mark's fingers. And upon a second glance, she discovered it wasn't just any magazine, but a women's fashion magazine.

"And it's for _you_?" she asked, thinking that maybe Meredith or someone had slipped it under the door for her.

"It has my name on it," he replied, holding up the envelope. Written in big, bold, black Sharpie was "Sloan."

" Okay, true," she acknowledged. "But who sent it?"

Mark scrutinized it, turning it around in his fingers. When he held it by its spine, a small piece of paper fluttered down from between the pages, landing at his feet.

Before he could make a move for the paper, Izzie darted over and swiped it off the floor."Turn to page 68," she read.

Mark did as the note said, and flipped through the pages until he reached page 68. Izzie, standing across the room, could not see what was on the page, but she could see his reaction to it. First, his eyebrows shot up. Then, he almost seemed taken aback. His head tilted to the side, and his eyebrows lowered and knitted together, studying whatever it was that he was seeing. That part of his total reaction only lasted for about three seconds, as his signature smirk immediately took over.

The anticipation was killing Izzie. If he didn't tell her what it was that second, she was going to die. "What is it?" she asked, not even bothering to hide the desperation she was sure was emitting from her voice.

"Again, you tell me," he answered, amusement radiating in his voice. "Looking good there, Stevens. Or should I say, Bethany?"he asked, turning the magazine around so she could see what had captured his attention.

Izzie let out a shocked gasp. Staring back at her was the full, two-page spread of her latest Bethany Whisper ad, the same one that Alex had plastered across the hospital months before. For some unexplainable reason, Izzie was embarrassed over the fact that Mark was seeing that. She knew it didn't make much sense, after all, he had seen a lot more of her than what the ad showed.With her face turning red, she hurried over to Mark and promptly snatched the magazine out of his hands.

"You've got to be _kidding_ me!" she exclaimed, sinking down to the bed in exasperation. "He seriously needs to get over himself," she mused aloud.

This intrigued Mark. Clearly there was an underlying story going on here. "Who?" he asked curiously.

"Alex," was her reply which was accompanied by an exaggerated eye roll.

This answer was quite satisfactory for him. "Why the hell would he give me this?" he asked as he took a seat on the bed beside her, pressing the issue.

"Because, in his deluded little mind, this is his idea of revenge," she elaborated, running a hand through her blonde hair.

Her latest statement definitely captured his attention. "What does that mean?" he asked, searching for more information.

Izzie complied to his questioning. She turned to Mark and locked her eyes into his. "He's done this before," she explained. "We had just started our internship. Everyone knew I had modeled, but it's not like it was a big deal. But then, after I rejected his advances, he decided to make copies of one of the Bethany Whisper ads I had done, and post them all over the hospital. I'm not exactly sure what he was trying to achieve by doing that, but I guess he was trying to make me feel inadequate, like I didn't belong in the surgery program. Like I was nothing more than a pretty face and a hot body."

Mark pondered this for a moment, a strong hand stroking his chin. "And he gave me a copy because...he thought it would somehow turn me against you so he could have you all to himself?" he asked, trying to clarify.

"I don't know," she answered honestly, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," he said with a bewildered look on his face. "Did he honestly think that showing me a picture of you in your underwear was actually going to turn me off? What kind of logic is that?" he asked, unabashedly looking her up and down.

Izzie smiled. "I think there's a compliment hidden in there somewhere." she joked, glad to see he was unaffected by Alex's ploy.

"There is," he said with a grin.

"Wow," she said, feigning shock. "Mark Sloan just dished out a compliment. Never thought I'd live to see the day," she joked sarcastically.

"First time for everything," he retorted back coolly.

Izzie smiled again, satisfied that the whole Bethany Whisper thing was over with. But Mark spoke up again. "Besides, I've always known," he stated blatantly.

She stared at him, her eyes blinking repeatedly as her brain registered what he had just said. "Wait. What?"

"It's not like it's some big secret," he said like it was obvious. But then, Izzie didn't say anything. She just continued to stare at him. "Was it?" he asked hesitantly, looking at her in confusion.

"Well, _yeah,_" she said in a loud whisper, like she was embarrassed. "Kind of."

"Why should it be?" he asked seriously. "You should be proud. Not only do you look sexy as hell, you also aren't sitting on 200,000 dollars worth of med school debts like all of the other mindless interns."

Izzie's look of embarrassment quickly turned into one of great relief. "Finally!" she exclaimed, letting out a long breath of air. "Someone understands," she said gratefully.

Mark slung an arm around her shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes with a seductive stare. "Trust me, Sweetheart. If anyone understands the pros of lingerie models, it's me," he whispered, complete with a wink.

It was a stupid joke, but nevertheless, Izzie melted. She brought her lips close to his, allowing him to take over and connect them. And as their kiss grew deeper, Alex, who was walking by to see how his plan was going, witnessed the whole thing.

Alex kept his cool long enough to bypass the room and continue down the hallway. But was soon as he rounded a corner, the dam broke. "Goddamn it!" he exclaimed loudly as he punched his fist into the wall in frustration.

"Okay, that is it," Meredith said, coming up behind him and taking him by the arm. "You're coming with me before you break your hand and become completely useless."

Alex may have been extremely strong and had a history of wrestling in college, but Meredith still managed to drag him all the down to the cafeteria and shove him into a chair before taking a seat across the table from him.

She leaned forward and folded her hands on the table. "Spill," she commanded.

"Spill what?"Alex asked, crossing his arms and looking around, not taking the bait.

"What is wrong with you today?" she asked forcefully.

"Nothing," he said, ceasing the wandering of his eyes to stare at Meredith, defying her. "I'm _fine_," he insisted.

A sympathetic smile played at her lips. "You can't fool me, Alex. When someone says they're 'fine', they're not fine. I would know," she said knowingly. "And we are going to stay here until you tell me what's going on."

Alex sent her a "look." "Meredith, you weigh about 90 pounds. You really think you are going to be able to stop me from leaving?" he asked sarcastically.

"Remember, I am perfectly capable of beating you to a pulp with my tiny, ineffectual fists," she said, shooting him a sarcastic smile right back.

Alex, did in fact remember the time where she had almost succeeded in beating him up before Derek stepped in. And not wanting to relive that less-than-proud moment, he focused his attention back to not spilling his guts to her. "Why should I tell you anything?" he asked. "I mean, we're not friends. Not really anyway," he said viciously.

Meredith, however, was unaffected by his comment. She knew as much as he did that it was the truth. But that didn't mean they couldn't have a serious conversation. "Because I know what it's like to be in love with someone who has their attention focused on someone else," she answered honestly. "That's what this is about, isn't it? Izzie and Sloan?" she asked, gently but blatantly.

Based on Alex's reaction, she knew that she was right. His jaw clenched and he covered his face with his hands with a loud groan. "What could she possible see in that guy?" he exclaimed loudly, uncovering his face and ignoring the curious stares of the various hospital personnel scattered around the cafeteria.

Meredith raised an eyebrow. "You mean besides the fact that he is successful, charming, and extremely good-looking?"

"Not to mention pompous, demanding, and jerkish," Alex shot back harshly.

She looked at him for a moment. "Jerkish? Is that a word?" she wondered.

He stared at her incredulously. "Meredith!" he exclaimed.

"Right. Sorry. Not the point," she said, shaking her head in attempt to refocus.

Alex rolled his eyes at her. "You know, I just thought that if he saw her Bethany Whisper pictures, he'd be disgusted and stop pursuing her," he said, talking more to himself than to Meredith.

That didn't stop her, however, from eliciting a reaction. "You showed Sloan Izzie's ads?" she asked, her eyes widening in surprise. "The ones where she's in her bra and panties? Thinking that it would get him to _lose_ interest? You seriously thought that would work?" she questioned, her voice failing to hide her amazement.

Alex slunk down in his chair. The idea really did seem stupid when she put it like that. "It was the only thing I could think of," he muttered under his breath as his face turned an interesting shade of red.

Meredith looked at him compassionately. "Maybe you should try telling her how you feel," she said delicately, trying not to upset him.

"I've tried," he answered, shaking his head fervently at her suggestion.

"Try again," she insisted. "And don't subtly hint at it. Izzie doesn't always understand things unless she's hit over the face with it. Make it obvious."

Just then, Derek came over to the table the two interns were occupying.

"Hey, Meredith," he said, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the lips. "I'm about to scrub in on a craniotomy, but what do you say to dinner and a movie after?" he asked, completely wrapped up in his girlfriend, and totally oblivious to the fact that there was another person at the table.

"Sounds perfect," she agreed, looking back at Derek with complete love radiating from her eyes.

"Great. See you in a couple hours," he said, bestowing her with another kiss on her head before leaving.

When he was safely out of earshot, Alex spoke up. "You two are so sweet, it makes me want to vomit," he said sarcastically.

Meredith only smiled, the look of love clearly evident all across her face. "You could have that too, you know."

Alex snorted. "You never know until you try," she told him, truly believing that the old cliche was true.

He thought about that. It wasn't that he suffered from a lack of trying, he suffered from a lack of success. He had already screwed up what he had with Izzie. Twice. He wasn't sure she would give him a third chance. He wasn't sure he _deserved_ a third chance. But he was sure that the thought of Izzie and Sloan together made him sick. He was just going to have to figure out a way to prove his love for Izzie. The only problem was how...


	23. All Tomorrow's Parties

**A/N:** Okay, I feel like a horrible person. I have been saying I will update sooner because it's the summer and blah blah blah, and then I haven't. I apologize. Once again, I will try to amend that. Anyway, here's an update. This is sort of a filler chapter...big things to come in the next. Hope you all are still with me. Love you guys!!

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**Chapter 23: All Tomorrow's Parties**

The next day, Mark woke up to find Izzie sitting in the armchair. She had pulled it close to the bed, her elbows resting on the mattress and her head in the palms of her hand. And she was staring at him.

"Jesus Christ, Stevens!" he exclaimed loudly, jolting up in shock, covering his heart with his hand. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"What's the date today?" she asked, completely ignoring his question.

Mark took a couple of slow breaths, attempting to get it back to a normal rate. "What?" he asked, looking at her like she was nuts. That was random.

"Today. What's the date?" she asked, rewording the question as if he didn't understand it the first time.

He rolled his eyes. "I _heard _you."

"Then why did you ask 'What?'" she asked, furrowing her brow.

Mark shook his head with a groan. "Never-mind," he said, waving his hands at her. "Umm, let's see. This is the fifth day we've been stuck in here. The first day was March 25th. So that would make today…March 29th."

"The 29th?" Izzie asked, a faraway look on her face.

He was beginning to get very confused. "Yeah. Why?"he asked, his voice showing his bewilderment.

She shrugged her shoulders and flopped against the back of the armchair. "No reason," she said, trying to sound casual.

Mark wasn't going to buy that for a second. "Like hell there's 'no reason.' What's so important about the 29th?"

"Nothing," she answered, not looking him in the eye. "I just didn't want to miss the 30th."

"Okay. What's so important about the March 30th?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing," she said yet again, crossing her shoulders and looking away.

Mark raised an eyebrow. "Stevens-" he admonished, prompting her to go on. However, he still didn't receive a response. But then, it hit him.

A smirk appeared on the attending's lips. "That's your birthday isn't it?" he said, nodding his head in realization.

Izzie's eyes grew wide. "No-" she insisted, but her voice told Mark otherwise.

"Bullshit," he scoffed.

She knew he knew that he was right. No use in denying it any longer. "Okay, so what if it is?" she confessed. "It still doesn't change the fact that I'm stuck in here with you," she said, rather bitterly.

"Hey! I resent that," he said, only half-kidding.

Her voice softened. "You're right. Sorry. I didn't mean that," she said, laying a hand on Mark's arm as a small smile appeared on her face. " But as much as I love spending time with your –oh-so-charming-self, it's just that I've had this tradition every year and it just sucks that I won't get to do it this year."

"What is it?" Mark asked, genuinely curious.

Izzie's faced flushed as she shook her head fervently. "You'll think it's stupid."

"Remember, you're talking to the guy who agreed to sing Disney songs with you when you were drunk," he said with a slight laugh and a shudder as he recalled the memory.

"WHAT?!" she exclaimed incredulously.

Mark laughed at her surprised reaction. "Or, rather, would have if you hadn't changed your mind three seconds later."

A thoughtful came across her face, but was quickly replaced by an evil grin. "Will you do it now?" she asked, trying to sound innocent.

He replied almost before the question left Izzie's lips. "Hell no," he stated firmly.

"Why? You said you were going to that night," she whined.

He wasn't about to back down on that one. "Sorry, that was a one-time offer."

Izzie turned on the classic "puppy-dog" look. She tilted her chin, pursed her lips and batted her big, brown eyes.

Still, however, Mark wasn't budging. "Wipe that stupid pout off your face and tell me about your tradition," he said, changing the subject, officially dropping the whole Disney thing.

Izzie sighed reluctantly, but nevertheless, began to speak. "Well, when I was little, my mom was never home. She was always working at least two jobs, trying to support us. She couldn't afford to take a day off, even for my birthday. So every year since I was, like, 5, my aunt would come over to celebrate with me and she would make my favorite food: spaghetti and meatballs. Oh my God, did she had the best meatballs!" she finished with a orgasmic groan.

"Why would I think that was stupid?" Mark asked.

She thought about it for a moment. She wasn't really sure. "You just don't seem like someone who would be big on traditions," she answered honestly.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I've got traditions."

Izzie tilted her head, looking at him in disbelief. "Like what?" she scoffed.

She noticed a tiny glint in his eyes as he began to speak. "Every year on _my_ birthday, I go to a bar, pick up the hottest chick there, and then I take her back to my apartment and-"

Izzie threw her hand over his mouth, silencing him. "Okay. That's all I need to know," she said, pulling her hand away.

The glint in Mark's eyes remained as he leaned in close to her ear. "If you play your lucky cards, Stevens, maybe you'll get to be that girl next year," he said in a seductive whisper.

Izzie pulled away from him and stared at him with a sarcastic look of shock."Oh really?! Could I?!" she said, her voice oozing with fake enthusiasm.

"I'll consider it," he breathed, pulling her back to him. "But of course, I could always give you a preview right now," he whispered suggestively, running his fingers across her collarbone as he kissed the soft skin below her ear.

Izzie rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile. "There are worse ways to spend a birthday," she thought as she allowed Mark to pull her onto the bed and envelope her body with his.

Meanwhile, Alex sat in the cafeteria, sipping a coffee, while the other interns chattered mindless around him. It wasn't until he heard Izzie's name mentioned that he started paying attention.

"I just wish we could do something for Izzie," Meredith was saying, a thoughtful look on her face.

"Why? Because she's locked in that room?" Alex asked, causing Meredith, George, and Cristina to all turn at stare at him, surprised by his sudden contribution to their conversation.

"Well, _yeah_," Cristina said, like it was obvious. "Nobody should have to waste their birthday in a hospital room."

It's was Alex's turn to stare. "Wait a second. Tomorrow's Izzie's birthday?" he asked, guilty that he hadn't known that.

The other three interns didn't say anything. "I gotta go," Alex muttered, pushing away from the table and rushing off.

"That boy has been acting really strange lately," Cristina observed.

Meredith watched him leave, the only one who knew what was going on.

"Who cares? The guy's an ass," George muttered into his coffee.

"George!" Meredith admonished. "He's our friend," she said, whacking him upside the head.

George slumped down in his chair. "Since when?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, since when?" Cristina wanted to know.

Meredith looked at them like a teacher about to scold her students. "You guys! He's one of us. We stick together, remember? Even if he is an ass sometimes, he does have the potential to be a good guy."

Poor George was so lost. "What?" he asked.

Cristina, however, narrowed her eyes at Meredith. "You know something, don't you?!"

Meredith immediately took a sudden interest in her coffee, trying to avoid Cristina's eyes. "Oh! You _so_ know something!" Cristina gasped. "Tell me right now."

"Why do you automatically assume I know something?" Meredith asked, trying to sound offended.

"Oh, please," Cristina said with a roll of her eyes. "I've known you long enough to know when you're hiding something. Besides, you're Meredith. You _always_ know something."

"Well this time, I don't," she insisted, getting up from the table as exited in the same fashion as Alex had, hoping to avoid anymore accusations from her gossipy friends.

Once Meredith had left, Cristina turned to George. "Do you know what's going on?"

George just gave her a "look." "Do I ever?" he asked her pathetically.

Meanwhile, inside the hospital, Alex cornered Meredith while she was waiting for an elevator. "We need to talk," he told her while pushing her inside.

Alex pushed the "stop" button, halting the elevator. Meredith crossed her arms and stared at him. "What are you doing?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"Tomorrow's Izzie's birthday," Alex said, running a hand across his hair.

"I know that. But I'm surprised you didn't," she said, making a move to push the button to restart the elevator.

Alex grabbed her hand before she could, however. "You've gotta help me."

"Help you do what exactly, Alex?" Meredith said with a sigh.

"I need to do something for her," he said desperately.

"What makes you think I can help you. I have enough relationship issues of my own," she said.

Alex pleaded with her with his eyes. "Please. You really seemed to understand me yesterday. I can't talk to just anyone about this kind of stuff. I've got a reputation to uphold," he said seriously.

Meredith's firm expression softened a little. Alex's saw his chance and pressed further. "Please. I know it's killing you to keep this from Cristina and George, but I trust you. You were always the one who was always nice to me, even during the whole Olivia thing. You get me."

"Alex-" Meredith began, her resolve weakening. "You really should handle this yourself."

"I need you, Meredith," Alex practically begged, his eyes locked intently with hers. "This is really important to me."

Meredith saw the sincerity coming from the cocky intern. It wasn't a side of him that Alex let show often, so she knew that he was serious about this.

"All right, I help you," she decided with a sigh. "What do you have in mind?"


	24. Light My Candle

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing to do with Grey's Anatomy or anything else you may recognize in this story.

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**A/N:** Okay. It's been forever and a day since I've updated. Summer was insane, but now I'm back at school and should get to a much better schedule. And since it's been so long, I though I'd recap what's happened so far: Izzie and Mark were forced into a 21 day quarantine, they couldn't stand each other at first, but now (day 5) they have progressed into friends with benefits. Alex has realized that he is not yet over Izzie and has enlisted the help of Meredith to win her back, as well has plan a special birthday surprise for Izzie (this chapter is her birthday.) Mark also knows it is her birthday, and has his own plans for her...There are more, smaller details, but I figured those will work for now. Please Read and Review! I always appreciate feedback

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**Chapter 24: Light My Candle**

That night, while Izzie slept, two different cocky, arrogant surgeons each formulated a plan to make Izzie's birthday the next day one she would never forget.

Mark once again recruited the help of Nikki, a young nurse, to gather everything he would need since, of course, he wasn't allowed to leave the damn room. Alex, on the other hand, had Meredith at his side, the two of them mapping out a course of action to show Izzie how much Alex really cares.

Both surgeons had different motives as to why they wanted to make the day a special one for Izzie. Alex, obviously because he wanted to prove to Izzie that he really wasn't an ass, and Mark, well, there wasn't a whole lot else to do and planning Izzie's surprise would keep him occupied for a while.

The next morning, Izzie woke up, Looking around the room, she felt disoriented, almost as if she was still dreaming. Normally, when one looks around a hospital room, all one sees is white. White linoleum floors, white plastered walls, crisp white sheets. It makes everything seem more clean, more sterile. That's just the way it was, or in this case, the way it was supposed to be.

As Izzie pulled herself into a sitting position, her sleep-filled, bleary eyes still unfocused, all she could see around her was colors. Lots of colors. It was almost as if a Crayola Big Box threw up all over the room.

After rubbing her eyes and blinking a few times, she finally became oriented enough to be aware of her surroundings. Strewn all around the room were tons and tons of different colored streamers. There were blue streamers, red, green, yellow, purple, and orange ones, but the most prominent color was pink.

Upon further inspection of the room, Izzie noticed a homemade banner hanging over the door to the bathroom. "Happy Birthday" was handwritten in black Sharpie in big, block letters.

Suddenly, the bathroom door flung open and revealed Mark. Izzie beamed at him, her entire face lit up. "Oh my, god! Have you _seen_ this?!" she exclaimed, unable to hide the pure excitement radiating from her voice.

Mark couldn't help but grin when he saw the look on the intern's face. Normally he didn't like to think of anyone but himself, but he had to admit it felt kind of good seeing her reaction. "It's sort of hard to miss, don't you think?" he asked with a laugh.

Izzie got up from the bed and wandered around the room, trailing her fingers across the fingers. "I can't believe they would do something like this for me!" she stated with disbelief, focusing her attention back to Mark. "I can't believe they even remembered!"

Mark's grin vanished and was quickly replaced by a look of confusion. "_They_?" he asked, looking at Izzie through squinted eyes.

Izzie had already resumed her admiration of the birthday surprise to notice the way Mark was looking at her. "Yeah. They. My friends," she said, still not looking at him. "I bet Meredith thought this up," she said with a slight giggle, speaking more to herself than to Mark. "She's been so thoughtful through this whole thing. First the care bag, and now _this_." she sighed, gesturing to all the streamers. "The girl's seriously amazing. She definitely just made this day a whole lot better. I wonder how they did all this without-"

Izzie rambled on, but Mark zoned her out. As he watched her, without actually processing what she was saying, he slowly felt his heart sinking. After all, he had gone through all that trouble to set the whole thing up, and yet the fact that it was indeed him, never even entered Izzie's mind. And as much as that fact troubled him, what caused him even more distress was that he actually _cared_. Sure, it felt sort of good to do something nice, it was her birthday after all, but wasn't it enough that she was happy? Should it really matter who she thought set it up?

Mark shrugged off his thoughts. Whatever. If she wanted to believe that her little friends were behind this, all the power to her. Who was he to stop her? He didn't need her approval.

Later on in the day, Alex and Meredith were walking the halls of the hospital. Meredith was actually trying to get some work done, while Alex trailed along after her.

"Do you need to go over the plan again?" Alex asked hurriedly.

"No," was Meredith's quick reply without so much as a glance at Alex. She was absorbed with a chart in her hand, reading it as the pair walked.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, urgency evident in his voice.

This time Meredith took her eyes off the chart long enough to roll them, but she still didn't look back at him. "Yes."

"Because I really can't afford to screw this up."

"I got it," Meredith sighed exasperatedly.

By this point, Alex wasn't really listening to Meredith's responses, but instead just rambling on. "I'm gonna go in the room first. Give me a few minutes, then you follow with-"

"I got it," Meredith reiterated, a little more loudly this time.

"you know, _the thing_-" Alex said, continuing on.

"Alex!" she exclaimed loudly, finally fed up. She stopped walking and quickly spun on her heel to face the nervous intern, consequently causing him to slam into her.

"What?" Alex asked, looking at Meredith as if he just remembered she was actually there with him.

Meredith stared him dead in the eyes. "I got it," she said, her tone of voice trying to convince Alex.

A smirk appeared on his face. "Okay. If you got it, then what time are we doing this?" he asked, crossing his arms smugly.

Meredith stared at him a moment longer, trying to force herself to stay strong. But, she cracked. "All right, fine," she said, relaxing her face with a sigh. "Maybe I don't have it," she admitted grudgingly.

Alex shook his head in disbelief. "I'll be in surgery with Dr. Montgomery until 7:00. I'll meet you at the nurse's station at 7:15."

"7:15," Meredith repeated. "Got it."

Alex shot Meredith a look, showing her that he obviously didn't believe her.

"Alex. I got it." she insisted.

Alex nodded. "Good," he said, before turning around and heading back in the opposite direction. Meredith continued on the other way.

On a second thought, Alex turned around. "7:15!" he called down the hall.

Meredith didn't look back, but waved her hand back at him while she kept moving. Satisfied, Alex turned back around and continued on his way.

Even later in the day, around dinner, back in the room, Izzie and Mark were doing the best thing to do in a quarantined room. Well, maybe the second best: they were watching T.V. And, seeing how it was Izzie's birthday, Mark had graciously relinquished control of the remote. However, that led to him having to sit through "Jerry Maguire."

"_Hello. I'm looking for my wife. Alright. If this is where it has to happen, then this is where it has to happen. I'm not letting you get rid of me. How about that? This used to be my specialty. I was good in a living room. Send me in there, I'll do it alone. And now I just... I don't know...but our little company had a good night tonight. A really big night. But it wasn't complete, it wasn't nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I couldn't share it with you. I couldn't hear your voice, or laugh about it with you. I missed my wife. We live in a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors, I love you. You complete me. And I just…" _

"_Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at hello"_

Mark rolled his eyes at the sheer cheesiness of it all. He could not believe he just suffered through over 2 hours of this crap. If he didn't have the urge to vomit, he almost would have felt proud of himself.

Turning his head to his left, he found Izzie sitting there, silent tears streaming down her face.

"You know, I don't understand why women do this to themselves. Why watch these movies if when they make you cry?" Mark asked Izzie, completely serious.

"It's just so beautiful," she managed to squeak out through sniffles while dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

That answer didn't quite answer his question. "So then why are you crying?" he asked, still confused.

Frustrated, Izzie hurled a pillow in Mark's direction. "It's _romantic_!" She insisted forcefully.

"Hey!" Mark exclaimed with a laugh, ducking so the pillow narrowly missed his head and landing on the floor. He leaned over and grabbed it, softly tossing it back to Izzie.

She caught it easily and hugged it to her body. "Not that I would except you to understand. Guys like you don't really grasp the concept of romance."

Mark opened his mouth to retaliate, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Nikki was standing outside of it with a surgical mask on. "Special delivery for the birthday girl," she said with a suspicious smile.

Izzie looked at Mark curiously. He shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know what was going on.

Izzie slid off the bed and went over to door, opening it just enough for Nikki to slip her a big, brown paper bag before quickly shutting the door and scurrying away.

She placed the bag on the table near the bed. "What is it?" she asked Mark.

"You really think I can see through paper bags?" he asked sarcastically. "How the hell should I know? Just open it and find out already."

"Good point," she decided, nodding her head in agreement.

When Izzie peered into the bag, her face lit up for the second time that day. "What is it?" Mark asked, feigning innocence. Of course, he already knew what was in the bag. He arranged it.

Izzie looked at him, happy tears forming in her eyes as she pulled a steaming hot container from the bag. "Spaghetti and meatballs from 'Assaggio Ristorante'. It's the best Italian restaurant in Seattle," she groaned, thinking of the deliciousness that she was about to ingest.

Mark grinned at his accomplishment. He knew she would appreciate it. "I thought you might-"

Not really paying to Mark, she continued talking. "I guess since Meredith knew that I couldn't have my aunt's food, she figured this would be the next best thing," she said, smiling at the thought of her friend going through so much trouble for her. "She is _amazing_."

After she finished her thought, she turned to Mark who still had his mouth open like he was going to speak. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you going to say something?" she asked.

Mark was taken aback. Again, he went through the trouble of preparing a special birthday surprise for her and again she automatically assumed it couldn't have been him. He was thrilled to know how highly she thought of him. "I, uh…Is there enough for me?" he asked, covering up his astonishment, not bothering to correct her. It wasn't worth it.

"There's three containers in here," she said, pulling another one out of the bag. She peeked into it. "Two spaghetti dinners," she said, placing it on the table before opening the third. "and…oh, my God! A cake!" she exclaimed excitedly. "And candles!" she laughed, reaching into the bag one last time. "She is _too_ much!"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's eat," Mark grumbled, sick of listening to the blonde praise her friend who had absolutely nothing to do with anything.

Promptly at 7:15, Meredith approached the nurse's station to find Alex already there, waiting for her.

"You ready for this?" Meredith asked, coming up to Alex and laying a hand on his shoulder.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he replied, shooting her an uneasy smile. "You got the thing?" he asked, nervously running a hand through his hair.

Meredith smiled reassuringly. "Right here," she said, holding it up as proof. "Don't worry, she's now going to be able to resist this."

Alex looked at her gratefully. "All right. Let's do this," he said, letting out a determined sigh before heading off to Izzie's room, leaving Meredith behind, waiting for her cue.

By 7:15, Izzie and Mark had finished their dinner and were ready for dessert. Mark cleared away their dinner containers while Izzie brought out the cake and stuck some candles in it.

After throwing the trash in the garbage, Mark returned to find Izzie staring at the cake quizzically. "Fire," was all she said.

"Excuse me?" he asked, confused.

"Fire. A light," she clarified. "I can't light the candles," she said, looking at him pathetically.

"Aww, poor Izzie," he said, sliding his arm around her shoulder, lightly mocking her. He leaned in close to her ear. "But I bet I could light your candle," he whispered seductively.

Upset, she pushed him away. "Shut up! I'm seriously really sad about this."

"And I can seriously really light your candle. I'm fairly certain I have a lighter in my lab coat…" he said, looking around the room while a huge smile retuned to Izzie's face. "which I haven't seen in about five days and is probably…" he paused for a minute, thinking as Izzie's smile promptly disappeared. "in the bathroom," he said, having an 'Eureka' moment. "Hang on," he told her before heading off to the bathroom in search of his missing lab coat.

No sooner than Mark entered the bathroom, Alex rapped on the door window. "Let me in," he requested from behind a surgical mask.

"Alex, what are you doing here?" Izzie asked once she let him in.

"No, wait. Let me get this out. Because if I stop for any period of time, I'm going to chicken out," he said, his face turning slightly red.

Izzie didn't say anything, just waited for him to continue.

"So, I stayed up all night with Meredith, trying to come up with a perfect surprise for your birthday today. And we finally decided on one. It was a pretty elaborate plan, actually. But on the way over here, I decided to drop the plan and just wing it."

"I've always prided myself for being honest. Hell, even though it's gotten me in trouble more than once, I don't give a shit. I also don't care what anyone else think's of me. I can't help it, it's just who I am. And yet, every time I look at you, all I can think about is how I can't tell you what I'm really thinking because I'm afraid of what you might think of me."

Izzie, not sure if she liked where Alex's speech seemed to be heading, she opened her mouth to say something.

"Hang on. I'm not finished," Alex said cutting her off before she got a chance to say anything. When he was satisfied that he wouldn't get interrupted again, he continued. "Anyway, I feel like I need to tell you now. I need to finally be honest. You are on my mind every freaking second of every freaking day. There. I said it. And you know, I get that there is a very large chance that you don't feel the same way. And I get that this thing, whatever we've had, in the past hasn't worked out. And I get that it was my fault. I screwed up. I get that I'm on my third strike. But I am asking for a chance. I'm asking for a chance to _be_ with you, Izzie Stevens, because I've had to live without you for a while now, and basically, it's sucked. And it's not something that I want to continue doing. So, please, Iz. Please," he begged, pleading with her using his eyes.

Izzie just stood there, looking at him, tears welling up in her brown eyes. Alex shidted his weight from foot to foot, waiting for her to say something. "Okay. I'm done now," he announced with a nervous laugh.

Izzie was absolutely speechless. A rush of emotions rushed through her body all at once. She couldn't even distinguish between them. "Alex, I-" she began, as her tears began to fall.

Loud, strong claps from the other side of the room shook the pair out of their trances. "Wow. Surprisingly eloquent, Karev. Never would have thought you had it in you," he said, mocking Alex's whole proclamation.

Izzie turned to face Mark, however, Alex's voice pulled her back to him.

"Iz," he pleaded, grabbing her arms with his hands.

"She doesn't want you, Karev," Mark said confidently. "Let it go."

"I think you should let her be the judge on that one, Sloan," Alex retorted but never taking his eyes off of Izzie.

Izzie turned her head so that she could look at Mark. Then, she looked back to Alex. Then back to Mark. She went back and forth, trying to come up with something to say, not an easy feat when she couldn't decipher her emotions at them moment.

Alex decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled on her arms, jerking her toward him so their lips met. Well, technically, Izzie's lips met the surgical mask, but she could feel the movement of his lips beneath it. Alex's "kiss" was long and as deep as it could get through a mask. Izzie didn't exactly reciprocate his actions, but she didn't exactly stop him either.

When Alex finally pulled away, Izzie was even more speechless than before. "I…I…" she stammered.

She looked back at Mark, who was looking at the two interns with an expressionless face. She then looked back to Alex who was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something, anything.

Izzie's breathing got heavier, and the room stared spinning. "I think I'm going to faint," she managed to whisper before the world around her was plunged into complete darkness.

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**A/N:** So a few end notes for you guys. 1. What the heck is wrong with Izzie? I'd be interested to hear your ideas. 2. Who do you think she should end up with? Honestly, I can't even decided based on where things stand right now. 3. Is there anything you would _like _to see happen? and finally, 4. Anyone who can tell me where the chapter title comes from wins...umm..something. 


	25. Harder to Breathe

**A/N: **Okay, just letting everyone know I am officially back from the dead. I promise. I won't give excuses, but I will say I'm pretty upset with myself. But now, moving on. Big shout-out to: **RunningWithScalpels78, Murgy31, Amnesie, **and** tivo, **all of whom knew that the title from the last chapter was a song from RENT. Another one of my obsessions. They win….more McStizzie goodness! I hope my return is up to par. Thanks for those of you continuing to read! Much appreciated.

**Disclaimer:** Still own nothing.

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_Alex decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled on her arms, jerking her toward him so their lips met. Well, technically, Izzie's lips met the surgical mask, but she could feel the movement of his lips beneath it. Alex's "kiss" was long and as deep as it could get through a mask. Izzie didn't exactly reciprocate his actions, but she didn't exactly stop him either._

_When Alex finally pulled away, Izzie was even more speechless than before. "I…I…" she stammered._

_She looked back at Mark, who was looking at the two interns with an expressionless face. She then looked back to Alex who was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something, anything._

_Izzie's breathing got heavier, and the room stared spinning. "I think I'm going to faint," she managed to whisper before the world around her was plunged into complete darkness._

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**Chapter 25: Harder to Breathe**

Mark's eyes widened in horror as he witnessed Izzie's knees beginning to buckle beneath her. "CATCH HER!" he barked sharply at Alex, who was the closest to her.

Alex did just that, managing to grab her before she hit the floor. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down gently. He brushed back a piece of hair that had fallen across her face. "Oh, my God! She's burning up!" he exclaimed, looking up at Mark with a face of pure alarm.

Mark, immediately realizing the magnitude of the situation and what it could mean, went quickly over to Alex and literally shoved him out the door. "Get the chief. NOW!"

Alex also knew what a fever could mean, and wasted no time ripping off his surgical mask and taking off down the hall.

As he rounded the corner to pass the nurses' station, Meredith, who was still standing there, waiting for the signal to bring in Izzie's surprise, watched as he blew past her without so much as a glance. "Alex! I kept waiting for my cue. What happened? Alex?" she called after him.

Alex burst into the chief's office. "CHIEF!" he exclaimed, causing the elder doctor to drop the paperwork he was looking over in surprise.

"You need-" Alex gasped, doubled over, out of breath from both his sprint down the hall and his emotional shock. "You gotta-" he tried again, struggling to pull himself together. "It's-"

"Go on. Spit it out," Richard ordered impatiently. "I'm a little busy here."

His prompting, however, did nothing to help Alex find his words. In fact, he was so emotionally wore out that he collapsed in a chair in front of the chief's desk.

Richard, seeing his affected intern and the tears brimming in his eyes, knew immediately that all was not right in his hospital. "Just breathe, Karev. Breathe," he encouraged. "I need you to tell me what happened."

Alex obeyed and finally took a deep breath. "Izzie-" was all he managed to spit out before he broke down again.

Richard jumped up quickly from his chair, causing it to fall over backward. "What happened?" he asked, his voice alarmed, his eyes boring into Alex's. "Is she all right?"

"She-She-" Alex took another deep breath, trying to steady his voice. "She fainted, sir. And when I caught her, her forehead…it was on fire."

"Wait a minute. You caught her?" Richard asked sharply, his concern for Izzie momentarily replaced by anger with Alex and his flagrant disregard for rules. "Would you mind telling why in the hell _you _would be in-"

Alex cut him off. "With all due respect, sir, that's really not the issue here. You can yell at me all you want later, but for now, you have to come with me," he told the chief seriously, surprising himself with how steady his voice had become.

His words brought Richard back to reality and he bolted out the door without another word, with Alex trailing closely behind him.

As the duo approached the quarantined room, they passed Meredith who was still standing by the nurses' station. And when they passed by her without a word and at such an alarming rate, she followed after them.

She caught up to them when they reached the room. "Alex!" she exclaimed, finally getting him to acknowledge him. "_What _is going on?!" she asked as the chief was about to enter the room.

"There's something wrong with Izzie," Alex told her, the seriousness of the situation radiating in his eyes.

Hearing that, Meredith made a move to enter the room too. "Oh, no," Richard said, putting his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "You have to stay out here, Grey. I can't risk you to exposure too.

Alex elbowed his way past Meredith, also attempting to go in. "You too, Karev."

"But, chief-" Alex started in protest.

"You are in no state to be dealing with this situation," he said seriously. "Grey, take Karev to the locker room."

Meredith looked at him incredulously. "Sir, she's our friend!"

"And I will keep you informed. Go."

Both Alex and Meredith didn't move a muscle, trying to defy him. Their efforts, however, were futile as Richard stood firm. "Now!" he yelled forcefully.

Meredith made a move to leave, but Alex stood rooted to his spot, arms crossed, ready to battle it out. Meredith, making eye contact with the chief and knowing that it would be better for them to leave, took Alex by the arm and gently led him off back down the hallway.

Satisfied that they were indeed going, Richard took a deep breath and entered the room. "Talk to me, Sloan."

Mark was over by the bed, running a damp towel over Izzie's forehead. "I don't know, Chief. One minute she was fine, the next she fainted. And she's definitely running a fever. I'm checking that now," he said, pulling the thermometer off the wall and inserting it carefully into her mouth.

"Had she complained of any pain or weakness? Any signs of nausea?"

Mark looked up at him with an amused look on his face. "You mean other then the whole fainting thing?" he asked sarcastically.

Richard looked at Mark disapprovingly. "Now's not the time to get smart, Sloan," he admonished.

"No, sir," Mark adjusted, looking down with slight embarrassment. "Like I said, she was fine just a minute ago."

"What's her temp?" Richard asked.

Mark pulled the thermometer out of the intern's mouth and studied it carefully, his eyebrows kneading together in seriousness. "100.1."

"Hmm," was all that Richard said, stoking his chin as he considered this answer.

"Chief, is it-?" Mark began worried, not wanting to continue, as if saying it aloud would make it true. "Do you think it could be-?"

Richard knew exactly what the attending was trying to ask and came over and placed a comforting hand on Mark's shoulder. "It's too early to assume the worse. If she starts showing other symptoms, or if her temp spikes to 101.5, then it would be time to worry. But even so, I want to put her on an antibiotic IV drip just in case."

"I understand," Mark answered solemnly.

Before leaving, Richard turned around to look at Mark again. "Page me _immediately_ if her condition changes."

Mark nodded his head. "You got it," he said, his alert, icy eyes connecting with the chief's weary, brown ones, each surgeon showing support the other so desperately needed. Mark needed it because if Izzie was sick, there was an alarmingly high chance that he would become sick as well. As for Richard, well, the stresses of being Chief at Seattle Grace just seemed to increase with each passing day.

Meanwhile, Meredith had managed to coax Alex all the way into the locker room and was now in the process of trying to calm him down, as he had lost what little semblance of composure he had earlier and was, once again, struggling to regain it.

"Alex, you need to breathe," Meredith said softly, as she gently rubbed Alex's back as he hung his head in his hands, on the verge of hyperventilation.

Upon hearing her words, Alex's head shot up and he glared at Meredith, his eyes flashing. "Breathe?! Seriously?!" he exclaimed incredulously. "How could you possible expect me to breathe in a situation like this?"

He suddenly jumped up from the bench they were sitting on, startling Meredith. "There I am, pouring my freaking heart out to the girl, kissing her, and then-"

Meredith jumped up, shocked, interrupting Alex. "Wait, you _kissed_ Izzie?!"

Alex's eyes grew wide. "Meredith!"

"Right. Sorry," she said, sitting back down, allowing him to continue.

Alex stared pacing, running his hands over his head. "I kissed her and she fainted. _Fainted_, Meredith," he reiterated with an ironic laugh. "And now, she's unconscious. I did this," he said, shaking his head, his tone dazed.

"Alex," Meredith began carefully, looking at him sympathetically. "you did _not _do this."

"I put too much stress on her. It's my fault," he moaned sorrowfully, plopping back down next to Meredith.

Meredith's heart was breaking just seeing how sad Alex looked. "Okay, listen to me," she said seriously. "If there's any reason why Izzie fainted it's because she caught the virus. Not because of you."

Alex turned his head slowly, looking at Meredith in disbelief. "In what world is that helpful?" he asked, almost slightly amused. Almost.

Meredith rolled her eyes. "All right, so I'm not so good on the whole advice thing or whatever, but the point is, Alex, you didn't do a single thing to cause this," she said as he hung his head down again. "And right now, there's really nothing you can do for her."

Alex looked up at Meredith with such intensity that she was almost taken aback. "I'm scared, Meredith," he said sincerely.

She studied him, knowing there was nothing she could say to take his pain away. Hesitantly, she wrapped her arms around him and was surprised when he allowed himself to fall into her embrace. "I know you are. I know. I am too," she said calmingly as she held him, wishing that this could all just go away.

Back in the quarantined room, Izzie woke up feeling confused. The last thing she could remember was enjoying a conversation with Mark over Italian takeout.

"Hey. Welcome back, Stevens," a voice from her left said softly.

Looking over, she found Mark sitting in the armchair, looking as if he hadn't slept in days. Still groggy, she rolled her head to the left, preparing to go back to sleep. But before she could close her eyes, she caught sight of a tiny tube coming out of her arm. Recognizing that it was an IV she looked back over to Mark in alarm. "Wait. What happened?" she asked confused.

In the few brief moments that he hesitated, it starting coming back to her. "Oh my, God! Am I-, Do I-, Did I-, catch-" All she managed to get out between breaths were these fragmented questions as she quickly began to panic. If she was hooked up to an IV it could only mean one thing: she had contracted the virus.

In a flash, Mark had bolted from the chair and was at Izzie's side, softly pushing her hair back from her face, trying to soothe her. "Hey, hey. Easy there. Breathe," he said, taking his own deep breaths, encouraging her to do the same. "You're okay. Just breathe."

Once she had calmed down a bit she asked, "What happened?"

Mark sat down on the side of the bed and took her hand. "You don't remember?" he asked, slightly worried.

Izzie squinted her eyes and wrinkled her nose, trying to remember. "I remember eating the dinner Meredith sent but after that…nothing," she said, looking at him, frightened. She didn't understand why she couldn't remember anything after that.

"Seriously?" Mark asked, his eyebrows shooting up. "That's it? You don't remember Karev-"

Alex's name triggered something inside of Izzie and it all came rushing back to her, hitting her like a flash flood, the speech, the confession, the kiss. "Oh, my God," she groaned in recognition.

"Coming back to you now?" he asked with a small smirk.

"I think so."

"What have you got?"

"Alex came in here and kissed me," she answered. And when Mark had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, she knew that she was right. "But that still doesn't explain why I'm hooked up to this IV," she said, lifting her arm, offering it as proof.

Mark shrugged his shoulders. "You fainted," he stated blatantly.

Izzie felt like the breath was knocked right out of her when he heard his words. "Does that mean-?" she began panicking once again. "Oh, my God," she exclaimed, yanking her hand out from under Mark's. "I'm going to die!"

"Breathe, Stevens. You're not going to die," he said, looking her straight in the eyes, trying to be reassuring. "You just have a fever, which by the way has gone down. That does not mean you caught the virus. The chief put you on IV antibiotics just to be on the safe side. If your fever doesn't spike, you don't show any more symptoms, and, you know, don't go _unconscious_ in the next day or two, you'll be in the clear."

"What's my temp?"

"It was 100.1. And I know you're hot for me and everything, Stevens, but don't you think that may be pushing it a bit?" he asked, flashing his infamous grin.

Izzie could only glare at him. "Too early for jokes?" he asked, his eyes now gleaming.

When her response was the same glare, he shrugged. "Yeah, maybe you're right," he acknowledged.

Choosing to ignore him, Izzie changed the subject. "How long was I out for?" she asked, needing more information on her condition.

Mark glanced at the watch adorning his left wrist and sighed. "Well, judging from the fact that it's now 9 in the morning, I'd say about 14 hours."

"14 hours!"

"Relax," he told her, rolling his eyes.

"Relax? Seriously?! I was unconscious for 14 hours and you're telling me to relax?!" she asked, her voice becoming increasingly higher with each statement.

"It's really no big deal. You weren't really unconscious for that long. You woke up after about 10 minutes, but you immediately went to sleep. Like, normal sleep."

"And it didn't enter your thought process to maybe, I don't know, _lead _with that?" she asked sarcastically, and throwing her right arm up in frustration as her left was still occupied with the IV.

"Now where would the fun be in that?" he said wickedly. "I like watching you get all riled up."

Izzie's jaw dropped. This guy was unbelievable. "Are you not capable of human emotions?" she asked, completely serious. "I'm, like, dying over here and you have the nerve to-"

She was cut off when an evil grin appeared on Mark's face. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "_Fever- in the morning, fever all through the night_."

Izzie pulled her head back so she could see him, ready to declare the man officially insane. "What are you-?"

"_Fever- when you kiss me,_" he continued singing, place a soft kiss on the skin below her ear. "_ fever when you hold me tight_."

"Okay, you've lost it," she said, laughing, despite all her best efforts not to since he would win. "I think being cooped up in here has finally gotten to you."

"_You give me fever._"

Izzie smiled. Leave it to Mark to calm her down in the most ridiculous way imaginable. "Those so aren't the words," she teased, giving into him.

He pulled away from her, his mouth hanging open in mock-offense. "What are you talking about?" he said incredulously, throwing his hand over his heart. "Of course those are the words."

"No way," Izzie replied adamantly, shaking her head. "You reversed the order of the phrases."

"I did not," Mark replied defensively.

"Did too," Izzie insisted.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did too," Mark switched, trying to catch Izzie.

It worked. "Did not," Izzie retorted automatically. "Wait! Hey!" she exclaimed, realizing she had been tricked.

"Ha!" Mark laughed aloud in triumph. "Gotcha!" he said, sticking his tongue out at her playfully.

"What are you, five?" Izzie asked, going back to what was now beginning to be like an inside joke between the two of them.

Mark rolled his eyes jokingly. "How many times do I have to tell you, Stevens? I'm _six_," he replied, just as a six year old would, in a tone which showed how very offended he was that someone would think him younger than he was.

"Really? I'm an inch away from death and you're mocking me? Does it feel good? Does it make you feel special?" she asked sarcastically.

He let out an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, stop being so melodramatic. You are going to be fine."

"You don't know that," she said, lowering her voice, once again becoming grim.

He stood up from the bed and place one hand over his heart and held the other up. "I promise you're not going to die."

She knew he was just playing around, but she was nothing but serious. "There's absolutely no way you could promise something like that."

"Wanna bet?" he asked grinning, trying to make light of the situation.

Izzie wasn't having any of it. "Oh, that's real nice. Betting on my life. I feel so protected."

"Again with the dramatics. It really doesn't suit you, Stevens."

"Again with the mocking."

"Listen," he said, seriously this time. "You are not showing any of the early signs of the virus besides a fever. Lots of people have fevers without having Ebola."

"Lots of people don't do medical procedures on people with Ebola," she snapped.

Mark had had enough. He couldn't keep up with her switching moods every three seconds. It got freaking tiring. "Fine. You're dying," he told her, his expression deadpanned. "Are you happy now?"

"Seriously?" she asked, appalled by the audacity of the cocky surgeon, every though she knew she should have need used to it by then.

Realizing that he may have been a little harsh, he sat back down next to Izzie and took her hand again. "Okay, look. I'm sorry. But you really are going to be okay."

Izzie looked at him helplessly, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. "How can you be sure?" she asked in a shaky voice.

Mark leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. "I would never let anything happen to you," he promised softly.

To say the least, Izzie was shocked by the latest gesture. The kiss wasn't like any of their other kisses. Those, well, those ones held the promise of sex. This one, seemed to hold a promise of something else entirely. A promise of comfort. And she knew that he was sincere, that he truly meant what he said. She could even see it in his eyes. His sharp, icy eyes had changed. They were soft. As if, in an instant, everything had changed.

That prospect was so greatly daunting that Izzie had to change the subject. She couldn't think about it at the moment. "So, what an end to a birthday, huh?" she said awkwardly.

Mark noticed the abrupt change in subject, yet decided not to bring it up. After all, he too, was somewhat rattled by his words. He let them leave his mouth without a second thought, but now, he almost wished he could take him back. Not that they weren't true, but the fact that he said them because he was feeling something that he hadn't been expecting to feel was the most unsettling.

So he let it go. "You can make jokes but I can't?" he asked, like Izzie, trying to mask the awkwardness with a joke.

Izzie, thankful that Mark took her subject change bait, smiled sweetly. "That's right."

Mark rolled his eyes. "Oh, that's fair."

"Talk to me again when you're the one dying," she said, laughing.

"Well, all things considered, did you have a good birthday?" he asked, laughing along with her.

She pondered this for a moment. "All things considered, I'd have to say…yeah, I did," she decided. "Meredith really outdid herself."

Mark's gut twisted at the mentioned of the other intern's name. "Meredith," he repeated softly, standing up abruptly.

Izzie, however, was too preoccupied with the memories with notice. "I mean, it was nice enough of her to send that care bag, but the decorations and the food and that cake!"

He began clenching his hands into fists at his sides, trying to remain expressionless. "Stevens-" he began, trying to get her attention.

"'Cuz, you know, normally she's not into the whole 'celebrating' thing-"

"Stevens-" he tried again. She had to stop talking about Meredith. If she didn't, he was going to lose it.

"But she probably just figured since I'm stuck in here and everything-"

"Stevens!" he called, louder this time, his breathing beginning to get heavier and more rapid.

He had finally gotten her attention. "What?" she asked, surprised that he was interrupting.

Now that he had her attention, however, he was not sure that he wanted it anymore. Normally, he was the kind of guy who kept his emotions to himself. But for whatever reason, Izzie freaking Stevens was getting to him. Correction. She _got_ to him.

So, against his better judgment, he took a deep breath, and just let it out. "Okay, I told myself that I wasn't going to do this. I told myself that if you needed to believe that your whiney, 'it's all about me' friend pulled off the surprises yesterday, I wouldn't care. I didn't _want_ to care. But I do. And I'm not sure why. To be honest, I'm not sure if I want to know the reason why. But it is what it is, and I just have to tell you…"

"Tell me what?" Izzie asked softly, almost afraid of the answer.

"It was me," he admitted with a short laugh. "I did it. I put up those god-awful pastel-y streamers. I had the nurse order the delivery. I looked through a catalogue to pick out the perfect freaking cake. So, no. It was not Meredith, Izzie. It was me. And the fact that I care so much is a prospect so unnerving that I really don't want to think about what it may mean."

When he finished his little rant, he looked at Izzie, trying to gauge her reaction. That was impossible, however, since she was only staring at him blankly.

Knowing that he would invariably ruin everything if he opened his mouth again, since he would make some sarcastic comment and laugh the whole thing off, he waited. Waited for her to respond.

After a few moments, she spoke. "You realize that's the first time you've ever called me 'Izzie'?"

It took a few more moments for Mark to register what she had just said. "What?" he asked, blinking a few times, trying to make sure he had heard her correctly.

"Izzie," she repeated. "You called me 'Izzie'. It's always just been 'Stevens'," she said, her eyes beginning to water.

Mark was taken aback. "I- Well-," he stammered, not sure what to say. "Wow. I guess I never really thought about it."

Izzie couldn't believe what was happening. She felt as though she had entered a new dimension. "What's going on, Mark?"

"I don't know," he replied, refusing to look at her.

"No, clearly, you _do_ know," she said with a short, sarcastic laugh.

"And you don't?" he asked, looking up at her.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she saw the emotion radiating from Mark's eyes. "You have to say it. I won't believe it until you say it," she said, her voice sharp. Not that she was upset. But she needed to hear it from him.

Mark cocked his head to the side and looked at her helplessly. "Izzie-" he said, balking.

"I'm being serious. No bullshit," she said, wiping at a few more tears that were beginning to fall.

While he was watching her, Mark was waging an inward battle with himself. He didn't want to say it. This was the part of him that he didn't want people to see. He was used to being the arrogant man-whore. No one expected anything from him. It was easier that way. But then again, he had already let himself get this deep with Izzie. Maybe it was the fact that they were very much alike, her and him, and she could see him like most other people couldn't. Or maybe it was the fact that he was trapped in a room with her, and would be for the next two weeks, and reality has he had knew it just six days ago had changed. He wasn't sure. But whatever it was, he took a deep breath, and just said it. "It seems that I may care for you more than I ever thought I would. More than I ever wanted to."

"Mark-" Izzie sighed breathlessly.

He smiled uncomfortably, running a hand through his hair. "God, I feel like such a wuss," he admitted.

"You said you wouldn't fall in love with me," Izzie said softly, hanging her head, her tears now flowing freely.

Mark could only stare at her. "Okay… I have to say, that was not the type of response I expected," he said, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"You can't."

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, now very confused.

"I said, 'you can't'," Izzie repeated, looking at him sorrowfully. "Mark, you can't fall in love with me."


	26. One Piece at a Time

**A/N: **So here's another update. Not as quick as I would have liked, but hey, at least it was quicker than six months, right? So anyway, I'm not totally satisfied with this chapter, but it's 2 in the morning and well...here it is. I may tidy it up later. Thanks to those to review and to those who read but don't review. I love you all!Carrie

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_"It seems that I may care for you more than I ever thought I would. More than I ever wanted to."_

"_You said you wouldn't fall in love with me," Izzie said softly, hanging her head, her tears now flowing freely._

_Mark could only stare at her. "Okay… I have to say, that was not the type of response I expected," he said, unsure of what to make of the situation._

"_You can't."_

"_I'm sorry, what?" he asked, now very confused._

"_I said, 'you can't'," Izzie repeated, looking at him sorrowfully. "Mark, you can't fall in love with me." _

* * *

**Chapter 26: One Piece at a Time**

Mark fell back into the chair in shock. "I can't fall in love with you?" he asked, staring at the floor, his tone straddling the line between confusion and amusement.

"No," Izzie said softly, wiping the salty tears from her face with the back of her hand.

He looked up at her, his icy eyes boring straight into her green ones. "No?" he asked, as if repeating her words would somehow help him comprehend the unfamiliar situation he now found himself him.

Izzie merely shook her head in reply.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because," was her simple reply as she averted her eyes from his.

"Because?" Mark questioned.

"Why do you keep repeating everything I'm saying?" she asked, looking back at him, her tears ceased.

"I'm sorry, but I want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly. You're really telling me I can't fall in love with you?" he asked with an small, ironic laugh.

She sighed, a sign she was beginning to get slightly frustrated. "No, Mark. You can not fall in love with me." she said slowly, emphasizing each word, as if she was speaking to a child.

Mark pursed his lips in thought, waiting for her to continue. When she didn't, he blinked a few times and shook his head incredulously. "And that's all you're going to say?"

"Yes," she said, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Right," he said, stroking his bearded chin a few times deliberately before getting up from the chair and moving toward the middle of the room. "So I bear my freaking heart and soul, and all you're going to say is that I can't fall in love with you. Yeah, that's real fair," he said, his expression sarcastic, yet deadpanned.

"No. You do not get to be angry with me. Not for this," Izzie said, her voice sharp and her eyes shooting daggers.

"Okay, first I can't fall in love with you and now I can't be angry?" he asked, his back to her. "Where the hell do you get off telling me what I can and can not feel?" he snapped, the venom in his voice exceeding that which was in Izzie's.

"Mark-" she protested, her tone softening.

He spun around so he was at the foot of the hospital bed, facing her. He slammed his hands down on the footboard, rattling the whole bed. "Can you even begin to realize how hard it was for me just to say that to you?" he asked, a pained expression upon his normally stoic face as he held the board so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

Knowing that he wasn't finished, Izzie chose not to speak, but instead hung her head, listening to him as he continued. "I don't know if you've noticed before, but I'm not really big on the whole 'showing emotions' thing," he said sardonically, even going as far as to use actual air quotes. "In fact, I never do it. At all."

Mark took a step back, releasing the bed from his death grip. Wait, I take it back," he said, looking off to the side, almost remembering. "I did it once, with Addison, and when that ended up biting me in the ass, I told myself, 'never again.' But then, I thought, 'take a chance.' And now…" he said, looking back at Izzie. "…well, now I'm oh-for-two. Fantastic," he snapped harshly.

He shot Izzie one last glare before shaking his head in disbelief and turning around. He strode over to the bathroom and entered it, slamming the door behind him so hard that Izzie swore she felt the bed rattle again.

Izzie let her head fall back against the pillows, feeling guilty for upsetting Mark. "Mark?" she called out cautiously.

When she received no reply, she tried once again. "Mark, I'm sorry!" she called, trying her damnedest not to let her desperation come through in her voice. "Don't be like this," she pleaded.

Still, however, no sort of reply came from behind the bathroom door. "Please come out," she tried again, now not caring how pathetic she sounded. "Please?!"

She could only call out to him for she was still hooked up to the IV, essentially chaining her to the bed. But when Mark still didn't recognize her attempts to talk to him, she looked down at her tube. "Oh, screw this," she muttered, frustrated, and took it out.

She went to the bathroom door and pounded on it with everything she had. "Mark? Mark, come on!" she begged.

At last he opened the door. "What are you doing out of bed? You need that IV," he said with an almost comical casualness as he brushed past her, reentering the room and going back to the armchair.

Sighing, Izzie turned around and followed after him. "If I put in back in would you at least talk to me?" she asked feebly, climbing back into bed.

"I really don't see what there is to talk about," Mark said, grabbing the remote off the beside table and switching on the TV, refusing to look at the blonde. "I let you know how I feel, you don't feel the same. End of story."

She scooted over to the edge of the bed to snatch the remote out of his hand. She tossed it away, and grabbed his hand with both of hers. "I never said I didn't feel the same," she told him carefully, yet pointedly.

When he heard that, Mark looked at her with such intensity, that his already icy blue eyes seemed ever sharper than usual. "What?"

This time, it was Izzie's turn to look away. "I never said I didn't feel the same," she repeated, less confident this time.

"Oh really?" he asked sarcastically, wrenching his hand away from hers and jumping up from the chair, causing her to recoil back. "Because, you know, when someone says I can't fall in love with them I automatically assume that feelings aren't exactly mutual. Silly me."

"How am I supposed to talk to you when you're like this?"

"Like what, exactly?" Mark asked, throwing his arms up in frustration. "Hurt? Angry? Annoyed? Bitter? You better let me know when I've hit the right word, Stevens, because, right now, it's pretty much all of the above. That, plus the fact that I'm basically a freaking walking thesaurus could equal this going on all day. So, please, let me know."

"Do you have to be so sarcastic?" she asked quietly, as she felt tears reforming in her weary eyes.

"You know, some people say sarcasm is a defense mechanism. I don't really buy into that. Unless, you could think of a reason why I would be so defensive, because I've got nothing," he said, his voice so sharp that Izzie could literally feel it as it pierced her heart.

Not able to stand it any longer, she got up from the bed and stood right in front of him. He turned his head, trying to ignore her. "Hey! Look! Look at me!" she cried out, grabbing his face with her hands, forcing him to look at her.

"You are _so _amazing," she told him, staring right into his eyes. "There's so much more to you than I ever would have thought."

Mark's lips twisted into a contemptuous sneer. "This sounds like the beginning of the speech I give women when I'm trying to let them down easy."

"Shut up," Izzie said, releasing him and stepping back. "Are you going to get off your soapbox now, because I wanna talk," she said forcefully, telling him she was dead serious.

"You want to talk?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, his tone still dripping in sarcasm. "Are you sure about that? Because about two seconds ago you seemed very intent on dropping the subject. So…consider it dropped."

"God! You are _such_ an ass!" she exclaimed, pounding him in the chest.

"Well, you're not wondering _why_ are you? Because, if you ask me, it's pretty clear," he replied, making a move to back away from her.

"Stop it!" she yelled with such force that it stopped him in his tracks.

"Stop what, exactly?" he sneered.

"This whole 'poor, wounded me' act. I've had enough!" she said, her voice still raised.

Mark opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately silenced by her. "No! It is _my_ time to speak. If you would have gotten off your high-frickin-horse for two seconds I could have finished my thought."

He closed his mouth, and crossed his arms, looking at her mockingly, and allowing her to continue. "You say that you care for me more than you ever thought you would? More than you ever wanted to? Well, you're not alone, buddy. Each passing moment I'm stuck in here with you is making me fall deeper. It's new, it's scary, and frankly, kind of exciting. I haven't felt this way in a long time. But we have to face the facts here. This, our situation. It isn't real. We've been each other's only company for about a week now, trapped in our own little bubble. It distorts things. You and me, we would never work out there. It could never happen. So, no. You can't. You can't fall in love with me, Mark, because, the truth is…you don't deserve me."

His eyebrow shot up. "I don't _deserve_ you? Look here, Stevens-" he began, his tone switching from sarcastic to angry.

Izzie held up a slender finger, silencing him once again. "I'm not finished. You don't deserve me because…" she paused, taking a deep breath and looking away from him, her expression softened. "…you deserve better. I'm not good enough for you," she said ruefully.

Mark stared at her for a minute. He had to admit, that was not what he had been expecting. "Why don't you let me be the judge of that?" he asked sincerely, placing his strong hands on her shoulders, and moving his head so that he could connect his eyes with hers.

"I'm serious. Everyone says Meredith is the dark and twisty one, but it's me. I'm…I'm damaged goods. You don't want me."

"I'm pretty damaged myself, Stevens. Maybe we could be damaged together."

"And now you're mocking me."

"Yes," he replied with a small smile before his expression turned serious once again. "But I don't really understand what the problem is. So you're a little flawed, so what? Who isn't?" he asked, moving his hands from her shoulders and taking her hand in his, leading her to sit on the edge of the hospital bed with him. "Isn't that what the whole love thing's about anyway? Finding someone, knowing their flaws, and in the end, not really caring because it doesn't matter?"

"The problem is, Mark, is that I'm more than a little flawed. Hopelessly flawed, even. You don't want any part of that."

"Okay, you really have to stop ordering me around," he said, trying to lighten to situation. Don't I get a say in any of this?" he asked, brushing a stray piece of blonde hair back behind her ear.

Izzie took her hand and held it against his, pinning it to the side of her face. "I'm trying to protect you."

"From what?"

"From me."

Mark slipped his hand away. "Okay, now you're just being dramatic."

"I'm not kidding and I'm _not_ being overdramatic," she said seriously. "Right now, my heart is in a million little pieces," she said, looking at the ground.

He gently lifted her chin with his fingers, forcing her to look back at him. "Well, who says I can't be the one to put it back together?"

"Because that's not who you are!" she exclaimed, shifting her body so that she was slightly facing away from him. "It's going to take more than a hot playboy to fix me."

"Did I not just profess my feelings for you?"

"You said 'care about'. There's a big difference between 'care about' and 'love'."

Mark ran his hand through his hair, contemplating Izzie's words. "Six days is a little early for 'love', don't you think? I thought I was making a pretty big step saying what I said."

"You _did_," she insisted, turning back so she could face him again. "And I can't tell you how much it meant to me, but it's not enough," she said, taking his hand.

"Six days," he reiterated.

"Yeah, I _get_ that. But six days, six weeks, six months, six _years_, it doesn't matter, Mark. You'll never fall in love with me. That's just not what you do. And that's _fine_. Commitment's not your thing, I get that. But it's what I need. The only person who's ever been committed to me left. He _died_, Mark. And it shattered me. And I don't know if I'll ever be the same. So I can do the whole 'sex with no strings attached' thing and I'm even open to finding love again. Someday. But I know I won't be able to handle a weird, in-between limbo. Because if you're not willing to be all there, I wouldn't be able to handle it. My heart wouldn't be able to handle that."

"Stevens-" Mark tried interrupting.

"Don't worry," she continued, not allowing him to speak. "I'm not expecting anything from you. I'm just saying. It's what I need. I'm high-maintenance in the worst sense of the world. You don't need any of my drama. You don't deserve any of it. And trust me, you don't want it."

"Stevens-" he tried once again.

"You want someone who is care-free, and not damaged, and _whole_, and-"

He finally successfully cut her off by capturing her lips with his. "But what if what I want…is you?" he asked softly.

Looking into his eyes, Izzie could see that he was actually sincere. However, there was a big difference between words and actions. "A million pieces," she reminded him.

Mark's face broke out into a grin, knowing that she would be willing to give them a shot. "So we'll start slow," he said, pulling her close to him. "One. Piece. At. A. Time." he whispered , placing a soft kiss on her lips between each word.


	27. Crash Course in Polite Conversation

**A/N: **I haven't died, I promise. But thanks to** jessread4** for getting my butt in gear. I hope you're all still out there. And I threw in a twist in this chapter, which, hopefully allows me some more options with the whole being locked in a room for three weeks things, so there should be quicker updates. That's my plan anyway.

_

* * *

_

_"You want someone who is care-free, and not damaged, and whole, and-"_

_He finally successfully cut her off by capturing her lips with his. "But what if what I want…is you?" he asked softly._

_Looking into his eyes, Izzie could see that he was actually sincere. However, there was a big difference between words and actions. "A million pieces," she reminded him._

_Mark's face broke out into a grin, knowing that she would be willing to give them a shot. "So we'll start slow," he said, pulling her close to him. "One. Piece. At. A. Time." he whispered , placing a soft kiss on her lips between each word._

* * *

**Chapter 27: Crash Course in Polite Conversation**

Later that same day, Meredith, Cristina and George sat at a table in the cafeteria, eating lunch. Meredith had just finished filling her fellow interns in on the current situation.

"So where is Alex?" Cristina asked.

Meredith blew her bangs out of her face while thinking. "Umm…I think he's still in the locker room. He came into work today, but you could tell he was still upset. Chief told him to stay there for a while, try and clear his head."

"Shouldn't be hard," George murmured into his plate of french fries. "There's nothing in there."

"George!" Meredith exclaimed, lightly smacking him on the arm.

George looked up from his plate, surprised. "What?" he asked.

"That was not very polite," Meredith admonished sternly.

George regarded his friend as if she was completely insane. "Polite?! Seriously?!"

"Alex is going through a hard time right now. We need to support him," Meredith said, looking between both George and Cristina and talking to them as if they were small children.

Now it was Cristina's turn to look at Meredith strangely. "Alex is not our friend!" she declared.

Meredith crossed her arms and slumped back into her seat. "Correction: Alex _is_ our friend."

Cristina snorted. "Yeah…correction to _your _correction: He is not a friend. He is a companion. Learn the difference."

"Guys, enough!" Meredith exclaimed, leaning forward and slamming her hands on the table, letting her friends know she was serious.

"How would you feel if Callie was in Izzie's place?" Meredith asked George. "Or Burke?" She said, turning to Cristina. "How would you feel if they were getting it on with McSteamy?"

Cristina wrinkled her nose in disgust. "A little confused."

George rolled his eyes. "Callie's already done that," he said with a slight, ironic laugh.

Meredith, realizing that she may not have chosen the right words to get her point across, tried again. "All right, fine. How would you feel if they were lying in a hospital bed, potentially infected with the Ebola virus?"

"Well, when you put it that way…" George began, grudgingly.

Even Cristina cracked. "Okay, okay. Fine. What should we do to cheer up Evil Spawn?"

Meredith shot her a hard look. "Sorry. _Alex_," she corrected sarcastically.

"I'm so glad you asked, Cristina," Meredith said, smiling pointedly right at her friend, "because this is what I was thinking…" she said, leaning toward both of them as if she had a secret to share.

Back in the quarantined room, Izzie was back in bed, reattached to the I.V., with Mark lying in bed beside her, both on their backs, looking up at the ceiling in contented silence.

"So I've been thinking," Mark said randomly.

Izzie turned on her side to look at him. "There's a new development," she said with a laugh.

Mark also turned on his side so he could face her. "Funny," he said, indicating that he didn't think it was funny at all.

Izzie smiled, knowing he wasn't really offended. "I try."

"Try harder," he said with a smirk.

Izzie smirked back, but didn't say anything, so Mark continued. "So like I was saying. I've been thinking. Thinking of a way to prove to you that I'm serious about this whole 'taking it slow' thing."

"Seriously?" Izzie asked doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

"Seriously," Mark said, who sat up in the bed and then proceeded to get out. "What you say if I told you I'm willing to hold off on sex for a week so we could get to know each other better?" he asked, pacing up and down the edge of the bed.

Izzie laughed out loud. "I'd say you were full of shit."

Mark stopped pacing long enough to sit back on the edge of the bed. "Work with me, Stevens. I'm trying here."

Izzie wiggled so that she was sitting up in the bed. "You're honestly telling me that you're willing to give up sex?" she asked, clearly not believing a word he was saying to her.

"You sound surprised."

"Why wouldn't I?" Izzie laughed. "You're Mark Sloan!" she exclaimed.

Mark's eyebrows knitted together and a little frown appeared on his face. "You know, this whole "man-whore" thing is getting a little old. There's more to me than just my ridiculous good-looks."

"Okay, Zoolander-"

"What?" he asked, genuinely confused.

Izzie's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, you're old," she observed.

"Hey! That was totally uncalled for," Mark said, insulted.

"How could you not know who 'Zoolander' is?" she wondered. "Have you been living under a rock?"

Mark looked at her scoldingly. "You're not being very polite, Stevens."

Izzie bit her lip, trying to hold back her laughter. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry," she said, becoming serious. "You were saying?"

He took her by both her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "You. Me. No Sex. One Week. Conversation only."

This time, Izzie didn't bother to try and hold back her laughter. "One week?" she snorted. You wouldn't last one day."

The corners of Mark's lips turned up in a mocking grin and his icy eyes sparkled. "Try me," he dared her.

Izzie's squinted her eyes as she studied him carefully. "Conversation only?" she asked cautiously.

"Conversation only," he agreed.

Her lips pursed in thought, taking in what he had just said. After a moment, a smirk of her own appeared. "So none of this?" she asked before taking his face in her hands and bringing his lips to hers.

After breaking apart, Mark regarded Izzie, clearly impressed. "You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?" he asked, grinning.

Izzie smiled sweetly back. "Now what fun would that be?" she asked, patting him on the shoulder mockingly. "Besides, if you hold out, I'll really know you're serious."

"Oh, baby, I'm real serious," he said, eyeing her seductively before, once again, bringing their lips together in a soft kiss.

"Not helping your own cause." Izzie said with a laugh.

"Okay, okay. Point taken," Mark surrendered, scooting away from her and away from temptation. "Now, what do you want to talk about?" he asked.

"Oh, my God. You really are serious," she said, astounded.

Mark raised an eyebrow. You didn't think so before?"

"No," Izzie stated bluntly, shaking her head.

He grinned widely. "Oh, it is going to be _so_ much fun proving you wrong."

"Really?" she asked skeptically, a plan forming in her mind.

"Yup."

"Okay…" Izzie said, hesitating a bit. "Let's talk about our feelings," she said, grabbing Mark's hand and looking him straight in the eye.

His eyes widened in horror. He hadn't expected this quite so quickly.

Izzie didn't make him suffer too long. "Ha! Kidding!" she exclaimed, grinning triumphantly.

Mark could only stare at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar, the face of pure terror.

"Wow," she giggled. "You should really see the look on your face right now."

He finally shook it off. "You think you're funny?" he asked.

"I'm hilarious."

"Again…try harder."

"Well, well, well. Now whose not being polite?" Izzie asked sarcastically, smiling at their banter.

"All right," Mark surrendered, rolling his eyes. "I'll play nice."

"Good," she said, smiling triumphantly.

When he didn't make any response, Izzie blurted out, "What made you want to become a plastic surgeon?"

"Random much?" Mark asked, amused by her outburst.

Izzie just shrugged. "We're talking. Conversing, remember?"

Mark thought about her question for a moment before answering. "I was seven," he began, smiling at the memory. "I had my first girlfriend. At nine, she was much more mature than me, more wise to the ways of the world. One day, we were sitting out in my backyard, under a large willow tree, its long, cascading branches hiding us from the watchful eyes of our parents. We were sitting there bored, racking our minds for something to do. She turned to me, looked at me intently for a moment, then asked, 'Hey, do you want to play doctor?' Me, being only seven and, therefore, still slightly innocent asked, 'How do you play?' 'It's simple,' she explained, pulling her shirt over her head, and dropping her pants to her ankles. 'I'm sick so you have to examine me.' My first naked woman," he said with a chuckle. "I would have many in my life, mind you, but this one made the biggest impression," he said, continuing to laugh. "There, underneath that willow tree, I made a silent vow that one day I would become a real doctor. I liked what I saw, and wanted to see much more. The plastic surgeon part came later, when I was a little older, and realized that plastic surgery patients were generally female," he ended, looking at Izzie with his infamous "McSteamy" look.

"You are unbelievable," she laughed, knowing she should have expected something like that for his answer."

"Hey, you asked!" he exclaimed, defensively.

"You were a man-whore even at seven," she said, still amazed. "Incredible. I'm impressed. Really."

"What? It's not like we did anything."

Izzie looked at him as if she wasn't sure if she believed him or not.

Wanting to move on, Mark rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Stevens. You're up. What made you want to become a surgeon?"

Izzie didn't even hesitate before answering. "That's easy. I hate stereotypes. Always had. When I was younger, I had an African-American best friend who didn't yell at the screen when we went to the movies, and my neighbor, Mr. Li, was one of the best drivers around. But the one I hated most was the one everyone associated with me: because I was blonde and well-endowed in the chest area, I was automatically stupid. The breaking point came when the guy I was crushing on in high school turned me down when I asked him to a movie, claiming, "he only dated smart girls." He didn't know that I was in all honors classes, or that my favorite pastime was reading, he just automatically assumed. I had had enough. I decided I was going to prove Chase Lyons, and everyone who had ever doubted my intellect, wrong. I tried to figure out the best way to do it, until one day, it finally hit me. I was going to be successful in a very demanding, brain skills needing, mostly male doing job. I was going to show them. I was going to be surgeon."

"Very girl power," Mark said, slightly mocking her.

"Shut up," Izzie said, covering her eyes in embarrassment.

"See? We can do this," he said, pulling her hands from her face to hold them in his. "Polite conversation."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah. No problem," she said with a little laugh.

Meanwhile, Alex was, as Meredith as said earlier, still in the locker room. He was in the process of pulling his lab coat on when Richard appeared in the doorway.

"Karev. I need to talk to you," he said, his tone serious.

"I'm okay, Chief," Alex said, trying to brush him off. "I'm about to go back out there now," he said quickly, trying to move past Richard and into the hallway.

The chief put a hand on Alex's shoulder, stopping him. "Not so fast."

Alex finally stopped to look at him, and when he saw the grave expression on Richard's face, a look of panic settled onto his own. "What's wrong?" he asked, now worried.

"I just got off the phone with the CDC," Richard began seriously." They heard about our situation and about the incident with Izzie. They want to take extra precautions."

"Okay? So?" Alex asked, not quite knowing yet where this was going.

"So that means that anyone who may have had sufficient contact to her should be placed under the same safety measures as someone who has had direct exposure."

Alex immediately felt a sinking feeling in his gut. "What are you trying to say to me?" he asked the chief nervously.

Down the hallway, Mark and Izzie were continuing their foray into polite conversation. Mark was regaling Izzie with tales of drunken debacles.

"You mean, you're actually telling me that you didn't realize that it wasn't a girl?" Izzie asked skeptically after Mark had finished telling her his latest story.

"Oh, no. I realized eventually," he said, reassuring her quickly. "Before it was too late, thank God," he added under his breath.

She eyed him carefully. "I can't actually decide if you're being serious," looking for signs to clue her in if he was lying or not.

"Not one of my proudest moments," he admitted, avoiding her eyes.

"Oh, my God!" Izzie exclaimed, deciding that he was, indeed, being serious before dissolving into a fit of laughter.

Mark sulked, slightly embarrassed, for a moment for realizing that if it had been anyone else, he would have thought it was funny too, and began laughing at himself as well.

Their good time was soon interrupted, however, when the door opened. Mark and Izzie turned to see who the intruder was and found Alex standing here, and indecipherable look on his face.

"Honey, I'm home," He deadpanned before entering the room, closing the door behind him and sauntering silently over to the armchair and settling himself into it.

Both Mark and Izzie were too stunned to say anything, they just watched him. It was until Alex fished the remote from under the cushion of their chair and turned on the T.V. that Izzie decided to break the silence. "Alex, what are you doing here?"

Alex didn't break his gaze from the screen when he answered. "The Chief decided that since I've had 'sufficient contact' with you that I need to be quarantined too. So, here I am."

Mark and Izzie's jaws dropped open at Alex's news and they stared at him in stunned silence. Mark, however, recovered first and turned to Izzie with an amused look on his face. "Well, looks like this week just got a whole lot more interesting," he said, the irony in his tone absolutely obvious.


	28. Who Survives and What is Left of Them?

**A/N:**Okay, New Year's Resolution: Update with more regularity and finish this thing as soon as I can. I realized that this February would be two full years of working on this story. So yeah, it needs to come to a close. That said, I'm not going to pull a deus ex machina and pull them out of the quarantine early or anything. But anyway, thanks to those who've stuck with me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. And this chapter is fairly short, but it's a filler. More excitingness to come as Mark and Alex duke it out for Izzie's affections. Enjoy!

* * *

_Izzie decided to break the silence. "Alex, what are you doing here?"_

_Alex didn't break his gaze from the screen when he answered. "The Chief decided that since I've had 'sufficient contact' with you that I need to be quarantined too. So, here I am."_

_Mark and Izzie's jaws dropped open at Alex's news and they stared at him in stunned silence. Mark, however, recovered first and turned to Izzie with an amused look on his face. "Well, looks like this week just got a whole lot more interesting," he said, the irony in his tone absolutely obvious._

* * *

**Chapter 28: Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?**

Izzie, Mark, and Alex watched as four orderlies in the giant quarantine suits wheeled in two extra beds into the growing-more-crowded-by-the-minute hospital room.

"It's about damn time I got a bed," Mark said, getting up from the armchair, stretching, and walking over to one of the new beds. "I was beginning to think I would suffer permanent back damage from sleeping on the chair for three weeks."

Izzie blushed, knowing that Mark was exaggerating a little. After all, he hadn't slept in the armchair the past couple of nights-he was in the bed with her. But she wisely kept her mouth shut for Alex's benefit.

The orderlies promptly deposited the beds and left, leaving the three doctors to confinement once again.

"Now, isn't this cozy?" Mark asked, looking straight at Alex with an amused expression on his face.

It was rhetorical question, Izzie was sure of that, but from the cocky smirk Mark was sending Alex, and the death glare he was getting in return, she could sense that these next two weeks were going to be anything but cozy. On the contrary, Izzie had the feeling that she was going to have to play peacemaker between the pair, otherwise they may very well end up killing each other.

Alex's jaw clenched hearing Mark's words and he looked at the attending through narrowed eyes. "Look, Sloan, I don't want to be here anymore than you want me here. I had no intentions of intruding on your happy little family here, trust me."

"Oh really? Because I thought that's exactly what your little plan all along was: to break up Izzie and me," Mark said sarcastically.

Alex scoffed. "I wasn't aware that you were together. There's a difference between dating and sex buddies."

Izzie watched the two exchange words like she was watching a tennis match, with her head turning from one to another, but now it was getting personal.

"Guys, enough!" she exclaimed, causing the men to stop glaring at each other and focus on her. "I much as I_ love_ listening to the two of you bicker about something that's none of your business," she said, pointing at Alex, "and something that you shouldn't be discussing," she said, turning her attention to Mark. "can you both just please stop and at least attempt to be civil?" she asked exasperatedly.

Alex turned back to Mark, the Death Glare returning to his face. "Fat chance," he said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, not likely," Mark agreed, also refocusing his attention on the other male.

Izzie rolled her eyes and snorted in disgust. "Well, I'm not going to sit around and listen to you two behave like children," she said, snatching her iPod off the bedside table and unplugging the IV pump from the wall. "Let me know when you decide to act like adults," she said as she retreated to the confines of the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

And so the gauntlets had been thrown down. Alex stood on one side of the room, his hands at his side, making fists so tight that his skin over his knuckles was white. Across from him was Mark, his arms folded across his chest, a smug look on his face.

There was nothing more Alex wanted than to knock the stupid smirk off Mark's face and it took everything he had to restrain himself. He _was_ going to win Izzie back during this next two weeks of quarantine, that much he was sure of, but he thought it might not be a good idea to start on that quest by knocking her current "fling" (he couldn't bring himself to think of Mark as anything else) to the ground.

Mark knew exactly what Alex was thinking at the moment. The boy couldn't keep his emotions off his face if his life depended on it. He knew that he wanted nothing more than to beat him up. Mark inwardly chuckled at the thought. Sure, he had heard that Alex had wrestled in college, but Mark himself was no slouch. And after a quick assessment of Alex's current physical condition, Mark was pretty sure he could take him.

For a few moments, neither of the doctors so much as twitched. It was as if their feral natures had taken over. Neither wanted to be the first to back down, like if they did, they would lose.

Finally, Mark broke. Letting out a short burst of laughter, he said, "This is officially ridiculous. We can't just stand here, staring at each other for the next two weeks."

"I could," Alex retorted, trying to let the older doctor know that if it came down to a test of wills, he would win.

Mark knew what he meant, but the double meaning of Alex's statement was also not unnoticed. "Karev, I know my beauty mesmerizes you, but, I, for one, cannot look at your ugly mug any longer," he said, moving from his rooted position in the middle of the room to settling down on his new bed.

"So that's it?" Alex asked, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.

"What's it?"

Alex went over to the other new bed and sat down on it. "You're just going to pretend that everything's just peachy?" he asked incredulously.

Mark pursed his lips together for a brief second, acting as if he was thinking, in an attempt to mock the young intern. He knew what Alex was trying to get at, but that didn't mean he had to let _him_ know that. "Of course not," he decided, looking at Alex with a sardonic grin. "Because it's not peachy."

"Obviously," Alex muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"Being stuck in a hospital room for three weeks cannot be further away from peachy."

Alex's jaw dropped slightly at Mark's last statement. "_That's_ what you think isn't peachy about this situation?" he asked, looking at him, shocked.

Mark shook his head in disbelief. Was this guy honestly that dense? "Okay, number one:," he said, holding up one finger and looking at Alex seriously, "we're finished with the 'peachy' and number two:" he said, throwing up a second finger, "I knew exactly what you were trying to imply, but it's just way too easy to get you riled up and I couldn't just let the opportunity slide."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

He has lost him. "Excuse me?" Mark asked, confused.

"I like Izzie and you like Izzie," Alex paused for a moment, considering his word choice. "Well, maybe not 'like.' Maybe 'use' would be more appropriate. But either way, all three of us are going to spending the next two weeks together. It probably can't get any more awkward than that."

"See, that's where you're wrong, my friend," Mark said, eyeing Alex facetiously. "It could get a whole lot more awkward. For example, if you were to wake up in the middle of the night and catch me and Izzie-" he trailed off, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Alex held a hand up, cutting Mark off. "Do not finish that thought."

"You're right," Mark said, nodding his head in agreement. "Ignorance is bliss."

"Just remember, all you have now is my sloppy seconds."

Mark guffawed. "Yeah, that's the way to a woman's heart. Call her 'sloppy seconds'," he said, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Alex said quickly, trying to ignore Mark's comment.

"Don't you think that if she truly wanted you, you'd be together already?" Mark asked, looking at him quizzically.

Alex crossed his arms across his chest defensively. "The timing hasn't been right."

Mark considered this for a moment before continuing. "Okay, then did you ever think that maybe it's still not right?"

Alex eyed him angrily. What right did he have to question this? "It_ is_ right," he reiterated.

A little grin appeared on Mark's face. It really was too easy to get him all worked up. It looked like it might be the beginning of a fun couple of weeks.

"How do you know?" Mark asked, continuing to push the intern.

"I just do, okay?" Alex snapped sharply. "It's not something I can describe."

"Whatever you say, Karev," he said sarcastically, clearly not really believing him.

"Look," Alex said harshly, looking Mark dead in the eyes. "I know this all just a big joke to you, but I'm serious about her."

Mark returned the stare, his icy blue eyes clashing with Alex's brown ones. "So am I," he said seriously.

Alex broke the gaze with a shake of his head. "Somehow, I don't believe you," he said with a sardonic laugh.

"Well, you don't have to," Mark said with a shrug. "but it's the truth and if you were to ask her, I'd think she'd say that she's pretty fond of me."

"You may have won for now, but there's no way in hell I'm going to go down without a fight," he said, with what he hoped was a threatening tone in his voice.

Mark snorted. "I'm not going to fight you for her affections, Karev. We aren't cavemen."

"I didn't mean literally _fight_. More like compete for her."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that maybe this is a decision Izzie should make for herself. I'll repeat again. Not. Cavemen," he said, making sure to enunciate the last two words so they would be sure to penetrate Alex's thick skull.

"I agree, but that's not to say we can't try and sway her in either direction."

Mark stroked his chin, thinking about what he had just said. "And just how exactly do you plan on doing that?" he asked, interested.

"Just a round of subtle man challenges throughout the next week or so."

"Like what?"

Alex thought for a moment. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe a poker game or an arm wrestling match or something. You know, things to do because we're 'bored' but also to show her which one of us is the bigger man."

"Poker is a test of one's manliness?" Mark asked, amused.

"Duh," Alex said, looking at him as if it were obvious.

"Right. And these charades are going to help Izzie decide which one of us to choose," Mark asked, making sure he understood jus exactly what Alex was saying.

"That's the plan."

"I see."

"But we can't let her know. We have to be subtle. We'll act like everything is normal and we get along fine."

"Okay then. May the best man win," Mark said, holding out his hand to Alex.

Alex took it and they shook. "Don't worry, _I _will. You can count on it." Alex said, an evil grin playing at his lips.


	29. The Time it Takes to Fall

**A/N:** Okay, so this update wasn't quite as quick as I wanted but at least it was quicker than 6 months, right? I'm definitely trying to stick to that resolution. So, without any further delay, here's the first dose of Mark-Alex competitiveness. Hope you all enjoy. Don't forget to review! Thanks!

* * *

"_Right. And these charades are going to help Izzie decide which one of us to choose," Mark asked, making sure he understood just exactly what Alex was saying._

"_But we can't let her know. We have to be subtle. We'll act like everything is normal and we get along fine."_

"_Okay then. May the best man win," Mark said, holding out his hand to Alex._

_Alex took it and they shook. "Don't worry, __I __will. You can count on it." Alex said, an evil grin playing at his lips_

* * *

**Chapter 29: The Time it Takes to Fall**

Izzie sat on the floor in the bathroom, her mind reeling. Alex Freakin' Karev was now going to be in very close proximities to her and Mark for the next two weeks. Yeah, that wasn't awkward at all or anything.

And it was a good thing she and Mark had their "no-sex" pact going on. If not, she would not be against locking Alex in the bathroom so the two of them could have their alone time.

She blew her bangs out of her eyes in frustration. Honestly, what was with her? A week ago, she couldn't stand the man, and now she couldn't keep her hands off him. She smiled to herself. Traitorous hands.

And what was she going to do about Alex? The man only professed his love for her less than two days before. And it's not like she could just waltz out there and tell him she didn't feel the same way. She knew what he was like and she wasn't about to have a whiny child on her hands for the next two weeks.

As for Mark, Izzie really wasn't sure what to make of the whole situation. She felt herself falling, falling hard and fast, for him. Normally, she would be opposed to this- a playboy like Mark was not something she needed at the moment. And not to mention the pace that all this was happening. It shouldn't take only a week for her to fall for him and feel like this. But then again, their situation was anything but normal.

Izzie sighed, leaning her head against the cool tile of the bathroom wall. This was going to be a long two weeks.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bathroom door, Mark and Alex were busy finalizing the terms of their "man challenges." Mark was lying on his bed, propped up by the headboard with his arms behind his head, while Alex paced back and forth across the floor in front of him.

"So how will we know, exactly, when we are competing?" Mark asked casually, a smirk playing on his lips. He was enjoying the sight of a wound-up Alex.

Alex stopped pacing, resulting in him standing directly in front of the attending. "If you have to ask, this might be easier than I thought," Alex scoffed, rolling his eyes before he resumed his previous route in front of the bed.

"Well, I mean, who's to say what constitutes a challenge?" Mark asked, never taking his eyes off the agitated intern, following him as went back and forth, back and forth.

This time, Alex didn't stop when Mark spoke, so he simply continued. "Sure, poker may be a test of our 'manliness' or however you put it, but is seeing who can sit through one of Izzie's chick movies the longest without vomiting a test? You see what I mean? Every single thing that we do can't be a contest."

That seemed to get Alex's attention. "What are you talking about?" he asked, his pacing finally ceasing. "Of course they can. Don't you realize that she's going to be judging us every waking moment, even if we weren't stuck in this room? It's what girls do."

It took ever once of self-restraint Mark had in him not to laugh out loud. Alex was taking this way too seriously. "I don't need a lecture on the inner workings of a woman's mind from you, Karev. I like to think I do pretty damn well for myself," he announced proudly, as he remembered his many conquests.

Shaking off the thought and refocusing, he continued. "But I hardly think that watching us try to see who can brush their teeth the fastest is going to set off any feelings about which one us would be better suited for her," he said sarcastically.

Alex pondered this for about a split second before a confident grin appeared on his face. "Who knows? It might. Good hygiene is almost always on every list of top qualities women look for in men," he said, folding his arms across his chest confidently, like he had proven a point.

Mark looked at the younger doctor through narrowed eyes. "I am so scared that you know that," he said, not bothering to try and conceal the shudder that ran down his spine.

"Hey, don't you look at me like that!" Alex snapped defensively, realizing just then how his previous statement must have sounded. "I grew up in a house with all women. Cut me some slack."

Mark scoffed. Like he was going to buy that excuse. "Yeah, well, I grew up with Derek and therefore in a house with all women also, but that doesn't mean I read their _Cosmos_."

Before he could realize what he was saying, Alex snapped. "We got _Elle_," as if that was going to make a difference.

Mark's eyebrows shot up when he heard that, but he kept quiet. He simply pressed his lips together, forming a thin line.

"What?" Alex asked defensively, trying to retain a cool demeanor.

Mark held his hands up in surrender. "I didn't say anything," he said innocently.

"You want to though, don't you?"

He did. He ran a hand over his chin, formulating the best way to phrase his thoughts. "I was just thinking how ironic it is that someone who reads _Elle _wants to test manliness," he said, eying Alex curiously.

On the inside, Alex was fuming. This conversation was not exactly going as he had planned. "Read. Read _Elle_. Past tense," he said, clarifying. "And it wasn't like I had a choice. There was nothing else in the house."

"No, no. There's always a choice," Mark said, waving his index finger back and forth, obviously mocking Alex. "You could have read…the newspaper…cereal box labels… nothing. Anything but girly magazines."

By this point, Alex was almost certain steam was coming from his ears. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

"Women appreciate men who aren't afraid to show their feminine side, all right?" Alex snapped as he shot Mark a hard glare.

The glare did nothing to rattle the attending. In fact, it had quite the opposite effect. It made Mark want to push him even further. There was nothing more he liked more than to rile up stubborn interns. It gave him a thrill when they finally broke. Which they always did.

Mark sent Alex his infamous "McSteamy" smirk. "Which is again, ironic, coming from you," he said, a hint of laughter in his voice. "But it's also interesting. Did you read that in one of your magazines too?"

He hit a nerve with that last retort. "Shut up," Alex said sharply, his face turning red.

Mark decided he would ease up for now. There was no use in breaking him now. Besides, instant gratification wasn't as exhilarating as delayed satisfaction. "You get riled up way to easily," he said, letting Alex know he was conceding. For now.

Alex, however, took Mark's letting up as a sign of submission. "I really can't to see the smug look of yours slide right off your face once Izzie chooses me," he said cockily, his self-assurance building up once again.

"My, my, someone's a little confident," Mark stated, one of his eyebrows rising in amusement.

"You're right. I am. And now that I think about it, I don't even know why we should bother wasting our time with this little charade. It's so obvious how this is going to end," Alex said, willing his voice not to waiver. He was trying to intimate Mark with his confidence.

"I think you've been watching too many mob movies, Karev," Mark said with a laugh, unaffected by the pressure Alex was trying to put on him.

"You are going to fall so fast, you won't even know what hit you."

Mark snorted. This was getting ridiculous. Alex's veiled threats meant nothing to him. In fact, the idea that he felt he needed to make them, let Mark know just how unsure of himself Alex actually was.

"Is that so?" he asked, staring directly at Alex.

"I predict that it'll only take three challenges before she realizes she can't resist me," Alex said, returning the stare.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you," Mark said, his voice low as his icy eyes continuing to bore right into Alex's. "That's a pretty fast time for her to fall for you and an even faster time for me to your manliness."

"Scared?" Alex asked, sounding amused.

"Hardly," Mark said, the corners of his lips turning up ever-so-slightly. "In fact, why don't we start right away?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Mark finally broke the stare. "Just follow my lead," he said, his voice returning to normal as he slide off the bed and made his way over to the bathroom.

"Hey, Stevens!" Mark called loudly, banging on the bathroom door, trying to get Izzie's attention. He could hear the music coming out of her earphones so he could only imagine what little else she could actually hear.

He received no reply so he banged a few more times. "You can come out now. We're done bickering like children."

The door opened a crack, just wide enough for Izzie to peer out. She eyed Mark carefully, and then glanced around him to check out Alex, who had climbed up onto his bed and was flipping through a magazine nonchalantly. She then turned back to Mark. Once she decided that they were indeed, done, she opened the door all the way.

"Took you long enough," she said, trying to be casual, as she brushed past Mark and ventured back into the room, pulling her I.V. behind her.

She plugged the machine back into the outlet next to her bed before she, like Alex, climbed onto it. "Do either of you know what time it is?" she asked.

Both male doctors glanced down at their watches before looking back up at Izzie. "9:00," they answered simultaneously.

Izzie eyed them curiously, but said nothing. "And the day?" she asked. She may have only been in the quarantined room a week, but the days had already started to blend together.

"Thursday," they said together once again, this time each of them shooting the other a hard glare.

The looks of contempt went unnoticed by Izzie. "Perfect," she said, clapping her hands together excitedly. "That means it's time for my favorite show."

She glanced at the bedside table. "Now where is that remote?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together as she tried to remember where she had seen it last.

The next moment was like a scene from a movie. Both Mark and Alex eyed each other carefully before both their heads turned to simultaneously look at Izzie. From there, they looked back at each other before both their gazes travelled to the armchair, where they both could see the small remote wedged between the arm and the cushion. Both doctors must have processed this information at the exact same speed because at the same time, they both lunged across the room, diving for the remote.

Mark, however, was a split second faster than Alex had grabbed the remote first. He tossed it to Izzie indifferently, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Izzie looked between the two of them for a moment. She felt as though something must have been going on, but she decided to let it go. They were both acting fairly civil, if not very strange, and she figured she shouldn't say anything. If she did, she ran the risk of them bickering again. She thought she would rather live with the curiosity than to listen to them fight.

So she simply shrugged it off, clicked on the TV and settled in her bed comfortable to watch her favorite ABC drama.

Once he was reasonably sure that Izzie was focused on the screen and not paying any attention to him or Mark, Alex leaned over to him. "So what about this plan of yours?" he asked, keeping his eyes ahead, hoping to appear blasé.

Mark, also keeping his eyes forward, whispered, "Patience, young Grasshopper."

After a few more minutes of standing around idly while Izzie watched TV, Mark turned to Alex.

"Watch and learn," he said to him with a confident smirk.

Mark strolled directly into the middle of the room, and without any warning, grabbed the bottom hem of his scrub top and pulled it over his head before tossing it aside.

It was only because the dark blue scrub top flew across Izzie's line of vision that she broke her gaze from the screen. She outwardly gasped when she saw Mark standing there in (almost) all his glory.

"What the hell are you doing? I thought we had an agreement," she asked quickly, feeling her face turn flushed as she took in the sight of his hard chest, tight muscles and those sexy, sexy cuts of his pelvic bone which were peeking through his low slung scrub pants. It was right about when Izzie couldn't remember exactly why she had made that agreement in the first place.

She did remember, however, the third party in the room. "And what about-" she asked, trailing off as she nodded her head in Alex's direction very conspicuously.

Mark shot Alex a triumphant grin before turning back to Izzie. "Glad to see where your mind's at, Stevens, but don't get your sexy, little, red, lacy panties in a bunch."

Izzie's face turned even redder at Mark's very accurate description of her underwear.

Mark continued. "It's just that, we've been stuck in here for a week now and I haven't been able to do m y workouts. I can't have that, can I? And since it seems that I won't be getting to a gym anytime soon, I'm going to have to make do with what I can."

And with that, he immediately dropped to the floor and began doing push-ups, the muscles in his back rippling with every motion. "One…two…three…four…"

Alex saw Izzie eyeing the older man as she bit her lip. He knew what that look meant. She wanted to jump his bones right then and there. He had to act, and quickly.

"You know what?" he asked with a nervous laugh to no one in particular. "That seems like a good idea. Gotta keep in shape."

And in a similar fashion to Mark, he whipped off his scrub top and dropped to the floor. "Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight," he huffed, doing eight push-ups in rapid succession so he could catch up to Mark.

Once he did, he slowed down the pace and the two of them continued with their side-by-side push-ups. "Nine…ten…eleven…twelve…thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…"

This went on for a while for both men were in practically spectacular shape. After they had reached 50, Alex decided he had better up his game. He paused for a moment so he could put his left hand behind his back. "51…52…53…" he counted out loud, turning his head slightly so he could see Mark's reaction.

When Mark noticed what Alex was doing, he simply smirked and turned up his own game. "54 (clap)…55 (clap)…56 (clap)…" He was throwing in a clap after every time he pushed himself up.

Alex gritted his teeth together. He knew Mark wasn't going to go down easily, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he fell.

By this point, Izzie had completely abandoned her TV show and was totally preoccupied with watching the show of testosterone happening in front of her. There was definitely something go on between the two but she didn't quite know what.

The two doctors continued their push-ups for quite a while. Eventually Izzie got bored. "Well, at least you're not arguing," she said to them with a shrug before turning back to the TV.


End file.
